|
Post by Shara Tiinedra on Dec 21, 2016 12:13:30 GMT -6
Despite the cynical nature that occasionally consumed her, Shara was not the griping sort. The dragoness much preferred to ah, actively deal with whatever issue had begun to cause grief as opposed to simply moan and complain about it. Particularly when the problem or issue at hand was ah...mathematical. Or scientific. Things only got complicated when other people, in some way, were the problem.
This was apparently doubly so if she was the problem.
Shara massaged her temples, grateful that the inn she currently sat within was rather quiet. She had her room upstairs, but she had gained no progress up there. Shara had hoped that a minor change of scenery could aid her with her moral conundrum, but alas it did very little. Ah, she supposed it was an overstatement or melodramatic to consider her entire self the problem here. More just a few aspects she used to consider minor. Scratch that. A few aspects she had never bothered to consider at all. Had she given them but a few thoughts once in a blue moon, perhaps she would not be in the situation that she was in.
Worst of all was the other person who set her down this road of mental frustration and internal pain. Nayru, the other dragoness with bronzed skin and dark hair. Shara was still far more grateful, if anything, and her issue with Nayru had nothing to do with the dragoness herself. Namely that, due to Shara's own mental fatigue before she had left Nayru's presence, she had utterly forgotten to properly plan their next meeting. She had suggested tomorrow...which would be today, but she had failed to specify a location. At the very least the village was small, so there was hope that Nayru would find her just fine.
Which left Shara with all the time in the world to recline into her seat and ponder away. At least she had come to one conclusion: she had no purpose. Her motivation for traveling Elibe had been to learn new things about a variety of subjects, as well as to find people of interest. Beyond that, though, she had absolutely no plans whatsoever. It was not as though she really helped the people who intrigued her, or even those who did not. She did not have any ambitions for some sort of career, and really she did need some source of income ah...sooner rather than later. She had begun to run out of the gold left behind by Rolf and his men.
What was she to do, though? Discovering one's purpose was not something that could be forced. Shara could not simply decide what it was she would dedicate her time and efforts towards achieving. It had to be something that tugged at her desire. Her desires used to simply be to learn. Now she...she didn't know. She didn't know what her own heart craved, and by the gods there was nothing more vexing than that fact.
At last Shara let out a quiet groan of defeat, her posture slacked and she sank a bit deeper into her chair. It was a good thing Shara hadn't bothered with a dress that day. Simple legging, boots, and a short-sleeved top was all she wore. Good lord, who would have thought they day would come. A day where Samash-Ra Teradiine couldn't be bothered to wear a dress.
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 21, 2016 15:53:36 GMT -6
Nayru knew quite well from experience that one slept the best after a long day of work, but she had rarely had reason to be anywhere near exhausted enough to actually need sleep, much less crash like a drunk log. Last night she had dropped it like it was hot, and by it she meant her consciousness, what with her not exactly training much before, especially not all that hard. So after she didn't even know how many hours of stamina training and experimenting... well, needless to say she'd been pretty tired. Went to bed early, and slept for a very long time. Sorta like hibernation! Just... dumber. Story of her life.
Whatever the reason, she hadn't gotten started on the hunt for red Sharatober until late morning, and unfortunately the realities of travel meant that it was VERY late morning now. But she had found a village that might possibly probably have Shara in it, at least according to the other dragon's... vague... directions... and total lack of suggesting a time. Ok so TECHNICALLY Nayru probably should have been the one to pick up on that, but in fairness at the time she had been a bit punch drunk and still trying to get her breath back from what she was fairly sure had been a good five or so hours of training, so she wasn't quite ready to accept all the blame for the situation as it stood.
Fortunately(?) her long life had left her pretty much unable to feel shame in normal things, so despite her myriad flaws Nayru had no issues whatsoever in walking up to the guy at the front desk with a breezy "Yo!" and a casual hand wave. Lesson 1 to stalkin-err, 'tracking down' people: ask around! The young man at the counter looked friendly enough, if slightly taken aback by her greeting. "Hello, are you looking for a room?" "May take you up on that offer another time, but right now no." Depending on how things went, it might not be a bad idea to spend a day here after all, Remus wasn't due back just yet and she didn't actually care which inn she spent time at; if Shara was here, it might work out to spend a night here. Buuuut that wasn't why she was here. "Looking for a friend of mine. Shara." There was a momentary blank stare. "Female, fancy ass dress" nothing "talks all fancy" nothing "busty" "AH yes I believe she is staying here" he responded almost immediately as the lights went on upstairs... and probably downstairs.
Nayru decided that she would never, ever tell Shara about this.
"And you're a... friend of hers, right? I believe she requested she not be disturbed unless it was-" "-Important, right, well, it is." There was a pregnant pause as he awaited an explanation of WHY it was important, but none was forthcoming, Nayru instead choosing to continue smiling blankly to put him on the spot. After a moment, he sighed with the eternal age of a man at odds with the world, laughing wryly with defeat. "If you say so, miss. She's upstairs on the second floor, end of the hallway on the right, room 8-B. Please see me if you decide you do need lodgings." And don't start trouble was left unsaid, but strongly implied. Not that she had any intention to do so of course.
Never ceased to amaze her the king of bullcrap you could pull off with a smile and sounding convincing. Nayru was a terrible liar, but not as bad at the whole half-truths thing, and a LONG lifetime of going where she wasn't supposed to be had given her a certain panache with the subject. Traipsing up the stairs and down the halls of destiny, she found what was probably hopefully Shara's room very quickly. The thought that the same could be done to her by someone with... less charitable intentions was hard to push from mind, but Nayru was in a good enough mood she didn't let it take too much of her attention, knocking on the door firmly with a triplet of raps. "Hey Shara, it's me!" Unless Shara was a raging lesbian with a long stream of women headed to her door for a little lip and dip, she probably didn't get many female visitors calling for her by name, and the other dragon would totally recognize her voice... right? Hm. You know in retrospect that was a very strange scenario to come up with and she wasn't sure what that said about her actual- she continued in a somewhat lower key voice, trying to push that thought from mind. "Anybody home?"
|
|
|
Post by Shara Tiinedra on Dec 21, 2016 17:47:52 GMT -6
Shara's own distractions left her acutely UNAWARE of her surroundings. It hadn't been until seconds after there had been a knocking at the door that she realized she had heard something. A vaguely familiar voice accompanied it as well. Strange, she had specifically asked the innkeeper's boy to let nobody disturb her. Granted, considering where he chose to focus his eyes, he likely hadn't paid much attention to what his ears had picked up. Really that was her own fault. Perhaps she ah, would be best off dressing in a more conservative manner in the future.
Oh, uh, right. The door. Shara forced herself up and strode over. She had some...minor confidence her guest was Nayru. Really, who else could it have been? She hadn't told Morrigan she had come here and ah, er, there wasn't really any other female that she had held a "good" conversation with in recent times. So unless it was a woman she had scorned in some way or another, come to try and kill her or take some sort of revenge, the odds were that Nayru had somehow managed to track her down.
Shara opened the door and blinked. Huh, it actually had been Nayru, though it occurred to Shara that Nayru looked slightly different when she hadn't been training for apparently a quarter of the day. She actually looked better put together than she did at the moment. Ordinarily that'd have vexed her, but she was already so frustrated that...ah, screw it. She could be happy for someone else, right?
"Ah, Nayru." Shara gave a small smile before she stepped to the side. Being the courteous dragoness she'd never been before, she held the door open so her acquaintance could walk on in. Even if Shara was dressed far too casual, granted that was by her own standards and not the rest of the world's, the room itself was in quite good condition. Except the bed. It had clear signs of "tossing and turning" across the sheets. Shara couldn't be bothered with that much, really.
"I'm so glad you made it. I had to be honest I ah, wasn't actually expecting you, given that I had forgotten to give proper directions...or set a proper time." When was the last time she ever had a guest uh, anywhere. At least one that hadn't been a bed mate. Even then it had been quite some time, and Shara's awkwardness showed more than she cared to acknowledge.
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 21, 2016 18:11:44 GMT -6
Ah, yes. Welcome to my lair, said the spider to the fly. Trying very hard not to be annoyed at the fact that casual Shara looked even better than dress Shara and apparently pulled off both looks BETTER than her, Nayru smiled genially and accepted the implied invitation. Hm... not a bad room. Probably for the best that she wasn't inviting any strange women into her own room, there was a pretty good collection of maps and various baubles strewn every which way in her own temporarily domicile, as well as some of her other work. She nodded in approval regardless, gracing(?) Shara with a smile and an offhanded "New look huh? Looks good on you."
Shara also seemed unexpectedly happy to see her, which in all honesty Nayru hadn't QUITE been prepared for, though she certainly didn't have a problem with it. Either the other dragon had done a LOT of thinking since yesterday or was just really good at turning up the charm. Or both! No reason it couldn't be that. It was funny in a way that Shara apparently hadn't thought to do it though; while Nayru was in no position to judge this time, her long history of meeting Veigue and Remus at various locations between adventures had left her very used to being quite businesslike at setting these things up, and if she hadn't been braindead tired yesterday she would have caught the error in time to remedy it. "I should've caught that myself yesterday, you can't take all the blame for that." The dragon grinned. "Think I was a bit sun-addled, or possibly suffering from a bad case of stupid. I crashed pretty hard last night so earlier plans would have gone to hell anyways. Let's just make the best of what time we do have."
"So!" Clapping her hands together with none of the boneshattering force she was getting used to, Nayru addressed her companion of convenience directly, failing entirely to hide her excitement. This WAS exciting! Pretty much all the dragons she'd met in a while had all been guys, and while she had no issue with guys, she had always been a tomboy after all, it was exciting to meet a female dragon NOT named Lynessa, and better yet who didn't exist solely to make her life a living hell. "What did you have in mind, Shara?"
Yeah, that was the other problem, she didn't really have any f**k**g idea what to suggest. Shara REALLY didn't seem like the training type, which had been the only idea Nayru had at the time, nor did she seem like the spelunking type, which was the only one she'd come up with since then. This village didn't seem to have much in the wise of unique cuisines, theater, shopping, or... really anything else that a highbrow lady like Shara would be interested in, and Nayru hadn't planned to set up a dancing routine tonight so that was plumb out of the question too.
|
|
|
Post by Shara Tiinedra on Dec 21, 2016 18:37:26 GMT -6
Shara, being the extremely tactful dragoness that she was, immediately thought Nayru had just thrown a massive insult towards her appearance. It was a good thing she did not have an immediate reply, though, because it gave her time to use that brain of hers that she's so proud of. Nayru had...been serious. In her defense she got the feeling that serious and Nayru were not exactly a common combination, and that she had just caught her on a good day the other day, but...Really? All Shara felt she had done was haphazardly toss on whatever she had that was easy to wear, rather than dresses which were...familiar, but difficult.
"I...thank you." Shara replied, with all the grace and poise of a deer in caught in headlights. "And yes, I suppose it was a mutual slip up. I'm normally better when it comes to planning things out but ah, yesterday was...quite the day." Shara still didn't really know how to describe it. Really it had just been a conversation, but it wasn't every day one had a conversation that casually made them question everything they knew or didn't know about themselves. Er, either way, at least Nayru's demeanor helped ease Shara's own awkwardness. It was not often she was so caught off by one individual, but really that just told her that she had truly met someone of interest.
"As for what I have in mind." Shara began, though she notably remained standing. "Well, yesterday I had hoped to continue discussing various topics. We could still do that, but...to be frank there are too many things on my mind right now. And I've struggled greatly to deal with any of them."
Shara breathed a sigh before gazing at Nayru once more. "You've implied that you know at least some form of hand-to-hand combat, yes? I was taught a few different styles some...centuries ago. But I have not practiced or used any of those skills for...some centuries now. I would be appreciative if you would spar with me."
It was strange that it had come to this, but really, Shara had no other idea what to do. Conversation alone would likely just make her conundrum an even greater issue to manage than it already was. Really she felt too tense and strained, and she could probably do to loosen up her muscles. She hadn't flexed or utilized them at all in at least two hundred years, not really anyway.
"It would help clear my mind, I believe."
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 21, 2016 23:57:35 GMT -6
Nayru couldn't hold back a throaty chuckle at Shara's choice of wording to describe their previous meeting. It certainly had been somethng else, for the both of them. Shara had apparently been quite affected by their discussion, which left Nayru halfway feeling kind of proud of herself and halfway ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED that she had said something wrong and that Shara thought she meant that killing all humans was the correct way to grow, or that Sky forbid Shara had actually taken any of Nayru's advice seriously and she couldn't think of any worse possible idea in the world. As for her, it'd just been training, kind of a new thing to her aside from a few half-hearted attempts in the past.
Speaking of training, it seemed that Shara had actually just hit her head forty or fifty times overnight, because she was actually suggesting they that go get hot and sweaty togeth-ok Nayru focus. Training. Right. Nayru had the slight suspicion that Shara was just going to turn out to be this ancient god-dragon who could knock her through a mountain with a single fingertip and enjoy Nayru's discomfiture for ever thinking she had a chance, buuuuut on the other hand that fight with Aeos had been REALLY fun and Nayru wasn't smart enough to turn down a shot at the Punchening 2.0.
"Sure, sounds like fun!" That probably should have been an extreme warning to Shara to jump out the window and never look back. From her own perspective though, Nayru didn't see any issues at all. "I'm no Sun Lian, but I know my way around a punch. Okay, granted, at this point she didn't even know what to call her combat style, but it was... a... combat style, and that was all that mattered, right? "We should probably find somewhere out of the way to train, though, like where we met yesterday."
|
|
|
Post by Shara Tiinedra on Dec 22, 2016 0:20:28 GMT -6
Shara was relieved that Nayru was up to the idea. When she had been younger she had always loathed training, but she had taken not of the objective value it held for her. It could assist her in securing her own safety and, whilst she was out in the world, could help her do so without frightening the masses or burning down a forest. That said her hesitations and dread were...more directed towards the people she had trained with. It had only truly occurred to her recently how badly they may have colored her perception of the act.
And even then, once she got into it she really enjoyed the thrill of adrenaline coursing through her being. It appeased a bestial desire that her blood screamed out for. The sensation of driving one's foe into the ground, battered and beaten, and...
Shara took a deep breath. She really, really needed to transform sometime soon. Just...just for a moment. Her absolute need to let loose the more dominating aggressive urges of her race was most likely detrimental to her mental clarity, hence her recent frustrations. And when frustration was pushed up against frustration...wll, in Shara's case, the result could wind up quite literally explosive.
"Splendid." She stated, giving her room a quick glance. Really she could not think of anything she'd need. Bandages? Ah...most likely not. Not for what Shara had in mind. The two may wind up bruised, or perhaps be left with a fat lip or at worst a black eye. Those could be tended to afterwards, and the sooner they got rolling the better. "Though I'm only so familiar with this Sun Lian...did they champion the style of martial arts you were taught?"
Ah, but her curiosity could be sated as they walked. With that she moved in front of the door and smiled. "Er, perhaps you can answer that as we move along. We can head for that same area. It's not so far that the walk will be dreadful." A part of her still was not exactly ah...looking forward to it. Once the fists were thrown it would be fine, and Shara knew that she desperately needed it in more ways than one. So she did not bother to await Nayru's response, and instead stepped into the hallway. Shara did need to await Nayru's exit, though, so she could lock the door. She had far too many expensive dresses, and far too much priceless jewelry, to risk leaving her room door unlocked.
Well, there was a bright side to get her more excited for the act to come! She could hear about Nayru's history of combat. How she trains and who she trained under. Clearly a warrior as accomplished as she, having battled all manner of horrors and monstrosities across Elibe, would have some excellent material to add to Shara's understanding of the subject.
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 22, 2016 0:45:00 GMT -6
"Sun Lian?" There was an element of disbelief in her voice as Nayru's attention lapsed for a moment, forgetting that not everyone else had the exact same interests as her. For a moment she actually forgot to start walking as Shara led the way out before regaining her senses and following the other woman's lead, out the door, though it appeared she was to be the first to egress nonetheless as Shara secured the door behind them. Which was probably smart, but she would've done it herself anyways, Nayru empathized better than almost anyone else could with Shara in being somewhat ah protective of her valuables.
"She was the mother of all martial arts... a sage who lived thousands of years ago, who survived for hundreds of years despite being human." There was no mistaking the respect, almost reverence, in Nayru's tone. It wasn't a subject that came up often what with the legendary sage having died thousands of years ago without a trace, most of her contributions to martial arts forgotten and her philosophical conclusions absorbed into more modern disciplines, but after Erim she had still been probably the second most influential woman in Nayru's life. Just, uh, not physically, because she was dead and all. But the few books and comments she had heard back in Arcadia. Not a single mention ever since. Humanity had forgotten her entirely.
At any rate, the journey to where the two dragons had met was not arduous, but did take some time; the necessity of minimizing the chances of discovery when unleashing her power yesterday had led Nayru to pick a fairly out of the way place, a good distance from any nearby villages - but not an especially rocky or uneven walk, so the distance could be covered reasonably quickly on the off chance one decided to walk off into the wilderness... looking for privacy, for example. And today of all days, Nayru was a firm believer in privacy to say the least. She wasn't just betting her own life, but Shara's too, especially if they both really got at it.
The gorge she had called home yesterday looked exactly the way she had left it, which was to say in utter disrepair on a level that the average crazy cat lady would be jealous of. It was very easy to see that Nayru had spent a fair bit of time there after Shara's departure, though on the bright side any evidence of her elemental usage had long since cooled off or dried out. So it wasn't like they were walking on lava or anything.
|
|
|
Post by Shara Tiinedra on Dec 22, 2016 1:20:46 GMT -6
Ah, yes. The more Nayru spoke of Sun Lian the more Shara was able to recall what little she knew of the woman. It had been more or less what Nayru had told her, though she gathered by the other dragon's...reverent tone, that she likely knew more still. All Shara had heard was the ramblings of a dragon she had written off as a fitness nut back in Arcadia. He had the body of a bronzed statue to show for it, but he had been incapable of grasping any concepts that did not revolve around training.
"I see. I had heard the name before, but only briefly." Shara decided to clarify as she locked the room door behind her, and proceeded to walk with Nayru down the hallway.
While the journey had been a bit longer than Shara recalled, she at least had Nayru's company for it. Ordinarily a long walk alone was a pleasant experience, for it allowed her time to think in peace. However "thinking in peace" had not been working as usual, for the past 24 hours at that. Hence her logical deduction that "thinking in chaos" would have to work. Surely there was no flaw in that logic...Shara hoped. She really couldn't be as sure of her own thoughts she had been up until yesterday. That natural assurance and clarity was what she missed, and she needed to find it again.
Shara surveyed the area. As expected it looked about the same. Nayru didn't seem to be the type to try and clean up a mess like this. In her defense Shara wasn't sure that was even possible to begin with.
So she breathed a small sigh and stepped away from her fellow dragoness. "Now then. Should we just...get to it?" Shara was not actually as nervous as she sounded, and even looked Nayru dead in the eyes. A task that had grown a bit difficult for her the day before. Instead it was just a bit of uncertainty. It had been about two hundred years since she last set up a spar. How did one go about doing such a thing anyway?
"Ah, but first..."
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 22, 2016 4:30:24 GMT -6
Blissfully unaware of Shara's mental meltdown, Nayru amused herself by counting everything in sight as they traveled. Her companion didn't seem to be much for casual conversation, which was fine, Nayru was perfectly well suited to silence anyways. She had quite enough experience that it had stopped bothering her a long time ago, and as she'd learned from Veigue, a silent companion was a far greater boon than the noise of loneliness.
Good ol' rocky, looking good as new. Nayru gave the jutting edge of a rock an affectionate pat as they passed it, definitely not proving that she had actually gone crazy yesterday or anything, and when they actually got to the inner sanctum so-to-speak she followed Shara's lead in separating to prepare for the clash of titans. All along her hype had been slowly building - she actually got to fight another dragon again! Aeos had been a hell of a fight and a great sport to boot, one of the few times Nayru had actually been able to stretch her own limits against an equal, rather than being over or under-matched as she always seemed to be. It was so exciting to actually feel like she could... do stuff again. Even knowing how her, ah, upcoming visit might go. Maybe it was just an attempt to live the last bit of her life on the edge, or pump herself up to deal with the future. Whatever the case, she could feel the energy building within her, and she wasn't just talking about the essence.
"Huuuuuaaa-"
Without warning, Nayru raised her arms, upper arms parallel to the body while her forearms extruded forwards with fists clenched, and drew on her essence. Her skin was still hardening when she ripped the first gateway out of the stream, then the second out of the river, an intoxicating tsunami of raw elemental essence pouring through every facet of her existence like a thunderbolt. Bronze turned to silver to gold as scales began to extrude from her arms, the massive bulk of her encased arms already evident, before they too disintegrated as gold turned to shadow and flame, the mass crushing inward on itself as the now all-too-familiar blackened scales formed over her arms, and the torrential lines of crimson energy began to flow across them in their natural pattern.
"-AAAAAGH!"
As her shout reached its crescendo, Nayru hurled both arms downward to her side, matched almost instantly by twin pillars of crimson shadow lightning that erupted on either side of her body, scarring the earth beneath her with the flickering, consuming heat and scorching light as the midday sun seemed to dull and darken within the gorge. The great echoing roar of thunder died down to the crackling of lightning and then constant buzz of the gathering storm of lightning building around her.
It didn't occur to Nayru that Shara was not, in fact, Aeos.
Hunched over slightly from some of her more bestial impulses, certainly not the trivial weight of the final evolution of her arms, Nayru grinned ferally at her counterpart, awaiting Shara's own partial transformation to match. Her voice rumbled deeper than it naturally did, still working to control the full flow of her power; if she transformed any further it would trigger a complete fullshift, and that would just be unreasonable of course. FAR too hyped up and excited for her own good, she shouted at her compatriot as much as a challenge as to signal her own readiness.
"LET'S ROCK!"
|
|
|
Post by Shara Tiinedra on Dec 22, 2016 10:29:28 GMT -6
"...we...need guidelines..." Shara's voice quieted at the sight before her, eyes open wide at the glorious power that had been unleashed. It had not been Shara's first time witnessing a half-shift, but it...she...she had never seen a half-shift on the level that Nayru had just performed. Shara hadn't expected the level of power Nayru had been able to draw out of her half-shift either. It was incredible, a testament to just how strong the other dragoness was. Her draconic arms were massive, heavy with raw muscle and her brilliant, black and red scales.
The earth and sky alike felt the effects of her half-shift, as excess electricity scraped along the ground and the sun's light dimmed slightly. And Nayru had just shifted her arms. The gods only knew what sort of effect she could have on the environment if she shifted anymore, or transformed into a straight up dragon.
That level of power, or even that level of shifting, was...already more than Shara's level. She had not exactly expected Nayru to be an equal in terms of martial arts skill, but she certainly hadn't expected her to positively dwarf her in terms of draconic power as well. It was...not humiliating, but...damn, did Shara hate to feel so inferior. None of her kin, her age at least, could pull off a shift like that back home. But then again it had been two centuries. Reality began to settle in all too well. Shara may have been one of the strongest of the "young ones" once upon a time, but she had no doubt fallen woefully behind.
She...she thought she never cared about power. Perhaps she didn't. Perhaps it was her innate pride as a dragon, the sort of pride and ego that was written into her DNA regardless of her personality. And boy had it been wounded today.
"I...had not intended for us to shift during this spar." Shara tried to keep the bitter envy out of her tone. Her success was questionable, but at least she had been able to hold eye contact with the all-to-eager Lightning Drake. "This was to be more of a simpler hand-to-hand spar. 0 shifting or draconic ability involved. I apologize for not making that clear."
Shara was just glad she spoke the truth, lest she felt more ashamed for just not being up to losing harshly to all of that power. Her first "guideline" was to be "no shifting or draconic ability" but Nayru had jumped the gun before she could even utter it. Heavens above, would she actually need to begin practicing? It had been quite some time since she partial shifted whatsoever, and even longer since she full-shifted. Again, for so long she thought that raw strength didn't concern her. She had been content with what she already had.
But to be shown up like this? She supposed her pride was far more petty than she ever anticipated.
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 22, 2016 17:34:48 GMT -6
"...Oh."
Nayru couldn't keep a certain degree of disappointment out of her crestfallen voice, though contrary to what Shara might believe it wasn't out of disgust or even exactly aimed at her. In reality, Nayru was just being hit by the unfortunate realization that she maaaaay have gone off the rails a bit so to speak. Allowed herself to get a bit overly excited and, er, expect more than was entirely reasonable. In hindsight, yes, she could see the folly of expecting another Aeos or even more, Shara had for the most part given off the vibe of just knowing what she was talking about with so much self-confidence (usually) that Nayru had figured she must actually be that strong. "Heh. Well don't I look like an idiot."
Grinning wryly at Shara with a bit of an apologetic air, Nayru focused for a moment on stemming the tide of power, the generated electricity dissipating with a few more scathing strikes on the ground nearby as the charred scales covering her arms dissipated into thick black smoke that similarly evaporated into nothing, leaving behind only the seemingly human arms she was er somewhat more used to sporting. "Alright, well, umm..." Nayru found herself without a fantastic ready-made response, rubbing her arms successively to get the kinks out in the wake of her dumbass idea. It didn't DAMAGE her per se or anything, but shifting that far did have its effects when dropped, so she'd be a little sore there for a bit. Not the end of the world, and probably no less than she deserved. Shara looked pretty mad at her, and like a puppy Nayru felt bad because of it.
"Normal punching, got it." It didn't take a great deal of brain power to decide between bajiquan or krav maga; the question was only 'was she trying to kill Shara' and the answer to that was an obvious 'no.' Still... slightly crestfallen, Nayru shifted into the familiar bajiquan ready stance, very thoroughly not excited to start things off again without Shara's... very explicit approval.
|
|
|
Post by Shara Tiinedra on Dec 23, 2016 1:32:16 GMT -6
"No, Nayru, you did not look like an idiot. I should have clarified from the beginning." Shara decided to admit. The look of disappointment on Nayru's face, and her tone of voice, only served to make her feel worse. It was better to be polite and simply move onto the actual spar, Shara decided. Thinking and talking were just not working for her, and she needed that to change. Evidently that meant bruising her fists and getting herself sweaty and worked up. Her heartbeat quickened as her draconic blood stirred at the prospect. Besides, if Shara was to be frank...Nayru had looked like a badass. Even if Shara could compete she had not intended to try in the first place. Still she was quite pleased that Nayru was swift to drop back down to the safe level.
Unfortunately the dragoness was not yet humble enough to admit it. Not when she felt so...woefully inferior.
Shara slid her left foot forward and rose her arms up. Left arm extended past the right and gently bent across her torso, while her right arm was bent up, fist before her cheek. At least her stance had been retained by muscle memory. Shara's mind hustled to grasp at what memories she had of training and sparring back in Nabata. What she had seen humans do since arriving to Elibe. She was no fool, though. Shara knew all too well that simple memory would not suffice. Would her instincts be as sharp as they had been before? Would her body's stamina measure up? Many factors would be at play to determine her performance in the spar to come.
The blonde dragoness took a single deep breath. Slowly. She drew in air and allowed her body to relax as best as she could manage. Being tense would only lead to an embarrassing failure. "My challenge, your move." Shara stated, her eyes fixated on her opponent. This was no true battle, where honor was a handicap. Shara would have considered it rude to charge Nayru, especially since she had reverted her half-shift so quickly for her.
So instead, she waited. As ready as she'd ever be for the other dragoness to take her first move.
|
|
|
Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 23, 2016 3:29:25 GMT -6
Thankfully Shara was a good sport about it. Nayru was sure feeling like a goldurned idjit right now, to say the least, so even if the other dragon was just being polite it still helped a lot to repair her bruised ego and heal the wounds in her very soul. Ok, little melodramatic there. Point was, she hadn't meant to be a jerk to Shara and the other dragon had offered a nice response, that was all. For now, they did the fighting and the fisting, as in punching, like normal people did. Normal warriors. Anyways.
"Right." Shara took up some pose that Nayru didn't recognize off the bat as being familiar, though that didn't necessarily say a whole lot. Or rather, it wasn't the first time she had ever seen a style like that, but she didn't know anywhere near enough about that, ah, 'branch' to recognize it from similar ones. To vastly oversimplify it, she could tell that the style used one's hands prominently - any idiot could see that much - but was it a close-in style with short-range power, a boxing style, longer range punches? If Shara moved her right foot forward, did that signal a kicks-heavy style, or a mixed martial art, or was it just a feint? Nayru knew she was better at bajiquan in particular than most human practitioners, but that didn't translate to mastery of judo, or jujitsu.
Nonetheless she approached gradually, taking Shara a lot more seriously than she had with Aeos at first. That one had started... well she'd charged and thrown a telegraphed punch. It wasn't really much of a test of anything. Since the earlier incident had reminded her that she and Shara were not necessarily the same in all regards, Nayru realized she needed to better gauge the blonde dragon, testing her abilities in order to be sure what she herself could do without risk of injuring the other dragon - or worse, offend her, by treating her like a fool. And hey, you could... sorta... call this a patience test, right? Like, seeing if Shara broke her stance and charged or... something... yeah. Anyways.
Closing in, Nayru assessed her options more closely. Obviously she couldn't go for a killing strike at all, or even an especially impactful one in case Shara was actually useless and had no idea how to fight at all. She didn't even know what style of reinforcement Shara used - if it was a wide-area constant flow or more of a specialized burst style like her own. For that matter, she didn't even know if Shara was actually paying attention. So... hm. A feint would be an interesting opening gambit. Partially stepping out of her stance, Nayru opened with a larger, visible, but slower right hook at Shara before stepping forward and bringing her lower left hand up for a much faster punch to the right side of Shara's gut, in proper bajiquan style of short-range power and attempting o get inside the opponent's guard. Seeing how Shara responded to both aspects of the assault would be very informative. Probably. Nonetheless, if Shara failed to react properly Nayru would heavily reduce the reinforcement on her left hand just before impact to minimize damage.
|
|
|
Post by Shara Tiinedra on Dec 23, 2016 14:05:01 GMT -6
As Nayru steadily approached Shara's position memories began to flood her mind. Memories of her on the defensive as one of her fellow tribesmen approached her. Her stand...it was wrong. Fists were in the place of opened hands, and so she slowly opened them, but her palms faced inward, not out towards Nayru. Her poise was correct, however, and she remembered the importance of that. It was perfect for flow of motion. To step, parry, and strike in a single breath. It had a name, but for the moment it escaped her. The name was irrelevant either way. What mattered was her memory of the techniques that came with this style. The movements, and her ability to apply them correctly.
It wasn't the only style she had been trained in, but it was the one that came to mind first. Had it been better for a one on one duel or fight? From the movements she remembered it seemed to be focused on taking an enemy down in hard but fluid motions, as few unnecessary movements as possible. At least that was how she would describe it. The other style had been one her tribe leader deemed specific to them. Representative of fire itself. A raging inferno that required the use of all four limbs, working in tandem to apply as much pressure and damage to an enemies entire being. As if they were completely ablaze.
Shara was ah, not quite so confident in her ability to follow through with that style. Nor did she want to risk doing any serious damage to Nayru, regardless if the other dragoness could take it or not. So she opted to stick to her fancy one-punch style.
Nayru had come quite close towards the end of her slow approach, which worked well for the style Shara had used. The bronzed dragoness threw a wider punch, which snapped at Shara's instincts...but why would she come so close to strike so wide? It seemed wasteful and-
Her body reacted before her conscious mind even did. Shara's torso twisted as her back-most hand swatted downward. It clapped against Nayru's fist - a second punch - and Shara's body stepped with the movement, her right foot now before her left and her right side facing Nayru. Shara must have caught the strike in the corner of her eye, and it triggered her instincts. Unfortunately she had still failed to do anything about the feint, the first punch, in proper timing, which left her in a precarious position. Her body wanted to follow up the movement by striking Nayru's chest with her forearm, but instead Shara had to try and force her arm up to block the wider punch, but she was a tad too slow, and took the strike straight to her cheek instead.
Damn, she had made the wrong move. Had she reacted first to the wider punch, she could have placed Nayru in a brief 'check' and follow up with a counter-attack. Thankfully she had at least managed to evade the more dangerous of the two strikes, even though taking that first punch had forced her to take a step back.
|
|