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

"You don't like raw food, Measle?" That didn't come as too much of a shock as he'd been eating things cooked human-style for quite a long time. "That's a blooming shame, that's how we're made to eat things." She took off down the street and looked into the butcher's shop. "Hope they don't mind dragons. Some people just can't stand us and a mad butcher is no laughing matter." The one she bit a while back was definitely a testament to that statement. She nudged at the door and wandered in, snapping up a rat in an instant. "You know why I like these places? It's always nice and cold in the meat freezer!"

"Well you're missing out my lovely lightning bug! There's lotsa stuff you don't eat it seems." Of course yes, he was indeed considered a pet, but that didn't mean he couldn't eat like a real dragon! "Meat freezers aren't really all that cold but when I leave typically people don't care that everything is frozen." So far her experience in the city was going well, for all intents. "Where do you wanna go now? Anywhere in particular?" She felt like flying, but she wasn't sure if he'd be up to that. "Could sit on a roof somewhere and watch the city?"

She raced off after him and tagged him with her tail. "Catch me if you can!" She swerved around chimneys and landed on a watch tower at the edge of the city. "Measle the view is amazing from here! Come and see!" Her tail swished back and forth like a metronome in joy as she shook off some ash from a smoking chimney. She loved days like this, she concluded as she thought to herself. Nothing compared to spending days with her closest friend. She did wonder though what Jackdaww was doing since he was out drinking. She wouldn't have been shocked if he was passed out by now.

(ooc;; Hope you don’t mind me throwing in a semi-plot thingy to spice things up )

Measle crackled and swerved around, trying to catch Hydra again, but she was the faster of the two when they were in the air, and he touched down on the rooftop a few moments after her, panting. However, he had to agree with her – the view was incredible. How was it that he’d spent his life travelling between cities, and stopping in almost every one, but had never seen one from above before? He shook his head, eyes wide in amazement, and looked down over the city. This was just what he’d wanted – it was perfect. All he needed to do now was keep it up for the rest of the day…

No such luck. He shuffled a little, trying to get comfortable, and the tile underneath him slid out from under him. His face fell as he lost balance, before tumbling head-first down the ash-covered chimney next to them, his tail flashing like lightning inside the cloud of black smoke. He fell for a while, coughing as he went, before tumbling out into the fireplace in the upstairs room of the house.

He sneezed hopelessly, shaking off one of the many layers of soot he had managed to accumulate on the way down, before finally managing to get a look around the room. He hoped there wasn’t a family in there – he didn’t want to have to explain to them why he was standing there covering their nice room in soot…

Strangely, however, the room was empty. Measle blinked in surprise, and looked around. The room was completely empty – right down to the floorboards. There was nothing up there, not even cobwebs. It was almost as if the dust was too scared to fall in that room. It gave him the shivers. He was just about to look for a way out when something caught his eye. It was like a light – all sparkly like a baby lightning bolt, but it glowed… black? What was that anyway? It seemed to be coming from under the floorboards at any rate.

“Hydra? I think you should maybe come and see this…”

(OOC: I don't mind at all. )
She fluttered down the chimney and shook herself off. "Eerie place isn't it?" When he called her over she hissed in a rather cat-like manner upon looking at the floorboards. "Don't like the look of that at all. Nothing natural glows black as far as I've seen." For a second she thought it might've been a baby lightning storm dragon trapped under the floor, but if it were a living baby dragon it wouldn't just be sitting there, and it wouldn't be glowing that weird color.

She backed away from it and sniffed the air. "It doesn't distinctly smell like a dragon to me, but then again my nose has pointed me in the wrong direction before and it stands a chance of happening many more times." Something felt inherently wrong with the room they were in, like time was standing still or something. 'I sincerely hope it's some kind of baby dragon under those boards.' she thought to herself. 'Perhaps just a highly arcane baby dragon with no control just yet.' Wishful thinking at its finest was what that likely amounted to.

"Measle I'd get away from there if I were you. . .The pulsing is getting stronger the closer you get to it." That was a worrying sign. She began to feel warmer, and THAT was certainly a bad thing. She tried to help him tear open the floor and backed away from the spot. "It saps the cold right out of me, I can't stand to be near that infernal thing, whatever it is." Then it occurred to her, she had an idea as to what it could be.

"Think it's something anti-magic? Since it's doing this weird thing to the room?" She reached out with a forelimb and tagged him once or twice on the tail. "Please Measle let's just break the window over there and get out of here." she begged. "That thing doesn't smell right." She backed into the wall afraid the thing would move closer and tried to figure a way out besides the window.

"Well Measle, bloody hell don't touch the thing!" she snapped. "If it's anti-magic we need to go tell someone in charge. We're DRAGONS that thing can kill us!" She took her tail and smashed the window then swatted at Measle again. "Well come on lightning bug let's get moving!" Again annoyed at her companion's lack of listening skills she moved between him and the stone. "I'm dead serious here." In a bout of momentary lack of concentration, her tail came to rest on the stone and sizzled as it burned. "Ow!" she yelped moving her tail. "You see?! This is why we're getting out of this cursed room, and I mean now!"

That thing had an interesting hold on her lightning infused friend, and just burned the Hades out of her tail. Either it was made to absorb that kind of power and then release it, or it just hated to be touched, both weren't good options and made the day even more ruinous than simply falling down the chimney of a house.

"Well why the Hades are you willing to stay here with it?" she asked moving away from it a bit. "In fact, it doesn't look like anyone lives here, let's just leave the stupid thing and go find Jack! Seriously don't you think someone would have heard us by now tearing up the floor? Let's just leave it here and not worry over it anymore." It was likely nobody lived anywhere near this thing. Jackdaww was probably either hungover or passed out, neither of which were of any help.

Shortly after her little probably not-so-convincing spiel she started to feel lightheaded. "I don't think staying here is a good idea." If he was going to stay with it then fine, she'd simply drag him with her. She smacked at Measle again in aggravation. "Man up Measle! You're not going to let a stupid rock control you, are you?" she demanded. Okay, this was not getting them anywhere.

"No I'm not leaving you here with that infernal thing!" Her scales were starting to turn color and make her even more ill-tempered. "You're coming with me if I have to drag you by your wings!" Then she got the idea to destroy the stone, but remembered that the last time she touched it, the thing burned her tail. "Think maybe if we drop it, it'll break? We've torn out half the floor by now, so if we can cave in the ceiling below then maybe when it falls this will go back to normal, eh?"

Instead of being aquamarine and royal blue, her scales were now shades of dark purple, a testament to the fact that Measle wasn't the only one affected by the stone. She moved forward and immediately backtracked next to her friend. At this point things didn't look too good with that stone still in tact. Perhaps biting him would work...?

She began to try and drag Measle away by his tail. "I will do my best to fix that bite later now get your skinny rear in gear!" Of course by this point her strength was at half and honestly she wasn't really getting anywhere with tugging, so she let go and tried to push him backward to the window. "Work with me here lightning bug! Please at least TRY to turn around and walk!" She hoped someone would show up soon because this certainly wasn't getting anywhere.

She didn't have the energy to be angry any longer and sighed dejectedly. "Please, please try harder Measle. Don't give up." She looked back at where the thing was and tried to smash through the floor/ceiling. "At least help me try to smash the floor to get that thing further away from you. Will you at least put some effort in?" She hoped this would work. "If something happens, I'm sorry I bit you."

"Anti-magic stone Jackie. I'm turning purple for pity's sake get something to smash the stone! Please! I'm about to burn to a crisp and the hell if I know what's going on with Measle!" she shouted. She put all her weight into moving him away from the stone and cringed. "Just get to the window lightning bug, that's all I ask of you at this particular moment. Do that, and you will make me the happiest dragon on the island!"

Several spots in the floor started to creak from the weight and from Jack's voice he wasn't too happy, and was likely to be highly inebriated. 'Oh please let him be half sober.' she pleaded mentally. Though with Jack, there was no telling what was going to happen next. This situation probably put a damper on his day of drinking in her mind's eye. Oh they'd never hear the end of this one when it was all said and done.

"You have no idea. . .How grateful I am for that chain mail now." Slowly she dimmed from purple to blue and breathed an exhausted sigh. "If you wish you may go back to drinking. We'll get out the window when we're able and explore the city some more." She pulled her tail around and nursed the burn she got from the stone. Of course she knew Jackdaww wasn't happy about this, and she was sure there would be hell to pay when he had a hangover.

When the temperature of the room began to lower, that meant it was time to move before the floor froze over and gave way beneath them. In a moment of guilt she sort of crawled over to Measle and tried to cool him off a little. "I really am sorry for biting you." she whispered. It had to help, at least only slight, right? She wasn't quite sure.

Hydra moved to the window and looked down as she wagged her tail. "Well, to the highest point in the city we go then!" she called as she took off out the window. Upon looking down once or twice she saw a bright flash of color in the crowd and brushed it off as nothing to worry over. "Seems big cities mean more diversity in populous, eh Measle?" Little did she know that the brightly colored person in the street would pose a larger problem than just keeping her attention a little too long.

She flew over houses and through puffs of smoke and came to rest on the roof of a tavern. "Well, aside from the smell of ale we have good music playing and an excellent view." she muttered. Something peaked her interest though suddenly, the smell of food. 'Something smells good.' she thought to herself. 'Wonder what it could be. . .' It took some restraint to keep her wandering off, but she stayed put with a little willpower.

“Ok, lead the way then.” He laughed, following Hydra out of the window and falling into a lazy glide for as long as he could manage. He was /tired/, and wanted to preserve his energy as much as he could. Hopefully his energy would filter back now that he was away from that wretched stone, though, which would bring back his lively mood. He too saw the flash of colour below them, and almost rolled over in the air trying to get a better look, but shrugged it off as nothing. He had seen /carnivals/ pass through cities – one bright flash in a crowd was nothing compared to that.

“Yeah, you get all sorts of people in cities – strangest I’ve met so far has to be a woman who was sometimes a bird, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I found stranger. It’s nice, really.” He said, flapping his way to Hydra’s side. The puffs of smoke from the chimneys were a bit much for him, so he weaved in and out of them like a slalom course, before landing carefully beside Hydra on the roof (making sure he was as far away from the chimney as possible this time to avoid a repeat of last time). The stench of ale blotted out his own sense of smell fairly effectively, so he couldn’t smell whatever it was that Hydra could, but he didn’t think that would matter. “What sort of smell? I can’t smell it at all.” He said, settling himself down into a more comfortable spot.

--

Jackdaww had almost made it back to the bar when he saw a flash of colour out of the corner of his eye. He turned quickly, his hand falling instinctively to his sword belt, but couldn’t see where it had come from. He turned around again uneasily, and started slowly towards the tavern again, but his interest was captured. Where had that come from? He knew he wouldn’t be able to settle until he knew.