Aerious
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The Foul Destroyer
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Post by Aerious on Dec 24, 2011 18:58:26 GMT -6
Dragons were beings born to rule. Every part of them was a precise and pure engine of war. Scales hard enough to resist any natural weapon on the planet, resistance to all elements and all manner of diseases, the strength of scores of men in a single swipe of a claw, and the command of the raw elemental energies that made up the planet.
As he stood in the dark, his eyes allowing him to see just as plainly as day, he could only think of a single thought.
"How the mighty have fallen..."
That was really the best way to think about it. Humans ruled this land now, and the very same dragons who once soared in the skies above, had become chained to the ground. Condemned to wander this world of humans disguised as one of them, never to feel the true freedom of the wind beneath their wings as they soared through the skies for days on end. Even now, after all this time, he could barely maintain his draconian flight for an hour before he became exhausted. He'd heard a rumor once, that even in this altered world a powerful dragon could break the bonds of reality and regain their full powers. The ability to remain in their normal form for a prolonged period of time, to no longer have their powers restricted.
Ah what a blessing that would be. To never have to fear humans again, to not have to stay in this weak and pathetic form for endless centuries. But such were the dreams of children, and he'd seen no evidence in all of his centuries to suggest that it was true. He was a creature of the sky, at home among the clouds, and he greatly desired to return to that. The tallest peaks in all of Elibe, to dance among them, to revel in the purest of elements. And now here he stood, next to a massive spire of earth. A human would think it tall, rising to over thirty feat, but for Aerious it was tiny.
He leaned against the rock spire and closed his eyes, waiting for his ears to alert him to the presence of his companion.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 24, 2011 19:44:48 GMT -6
She was still of mixed feelings about meeting up with Aerious, moreso than she would have liked. There was an element of all-too-human nervousness; even if he wasn't a threat to her life for the time being, it was still somewhat intimidating to know that she was about to meet with a decidedly older dragon, one who might not approve of her lifestyle so far. While Nayru had long since stopped worrying about what most people thought of her nomadic lifestyle, there was an undercurrent of worry that he might not approve at all. Even having left Arcadia and most of her kin behind centuries ago, she still valued the thoughts of another dragon over anything coming from the vast majority of humans - agree with them or not, their words were backed by centuries or even millennia of experience, making it prudent to at least listen.
There was excitement too; guarded, hesitant, but gradually building and already impossible to ignore. It was one of the primary considerations for having come at all. Whether or not she thought of herself as Arcadian, centuries of loneliness finally broken by meeting another of her kind - and a fellow wanderer, kin in element as well as lifestyle. There was value to simply making the meeting, even if nothing particularly life-altering went on through it. Dragons could be every bit as petty and tempermental as humans, myself included she added with a certain degree of self-flagellating amusement, but meeting an equal after so long of wandering around in the company of transient, short-sighted creatures was an interesting proposition.
Nayru made it to the stony spire as the light faded from the world around her, her pace slowed equally by the thoughts occupying her mind and the need to inspect the area for her kin. The scent of ozone was strong, a constant reminder that she was in the right area, and after a few moments she noticed the brown-clad man leaning against the similarly-hued rocks. "Aerious." It - was nice to meet again, even if they had only seen each other for a brief instant earlier. A light, wry smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she finished navigating her way towards the other dragon, prompting her to continue. "This has been an interesting day. Nearly thrown from a pegasus, making the acquaintance of a wyvern lord, a heady philosophical conversation with a human - and finally, a meeting with one of my kind. If every day was as eventful as this one, I do not believe that I could keep up with the stories that could be told."
A joke, somewhat, but also a wry commentary on the nature of her existence. Nayru was not above making light of her experiences sometimes.
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Aerious
Manakete
The Foul Destroyer
It takes pressure and time to make diamonds.
Posts: 496
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Post by Aerious on Dec 24, 2011 20:24:19 GMT -6
Aerious smelled her coming. Now that he knew what he was looking for, it became so obvious when she approached. Still, he'd never really picked that scent up. The light traces of it were always in Nabata, but for it to be so strong, so potent, was not something he was at all used to.
He heard her greeting next, and turned to look at her. This far removed from the town, with no lights on the darkening land, it would be nearly impossible to see. At least, if you were a human. For Aerious, and he assumed Nayru, seeing at night was just as easy as during the day. He did find a few parts of her opening statement odd though. "On a pegasus? Those winged slabs of meat?" He tended to not hunt them, since it did gather a lot of attention when one went missing, and he didn't enjoy Ilia much, but the few times he had, he'd enjoyed the lean meat. "I suppose it was for the sake of your disguise, though I would beware the warriors our cousin's bare, some of them are quite fearsome indeed." He knew that first hand, and had the battle injuries to prove it.
He did chuckle at her joke, and seemed to think back on something. "If you think a day of that kind brings stories, then you should not believe what I could tell you." He waved his hand, seemingly discarding this line of thought. "But I forget myself, perhaps I should continue with the purpose of this meeting."
He hadn't intended for it to sound quite so ominous, but there was nothing he could do about that now. "If I may ask Nayru, why do you travel? Travelers of our kind are very rare lately, and those I have seen have been allying themselves into the pitiful military conflicts of mortals."
He wanted to gauge if she had any information on what was happening to this world. He doubted it, but sometimes knowledge could be in the oddest places.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 24, 2011 21:15:10 GMT -6
"It was attached to a very friendly, very inexperienced trainee pegasus knight who seemed absolutely determined to show me what flying was like. The irony of the situation was delicious. Much like the animal smelled, but when in the company of both a pegasus knight and a wyvern lord - it seemed unwise to morph and eat it." To put it lightly. Nayru was quite certain that she could have bested Elly in a fight, but she knew less about Jasper, and he certainly seemed the consumate soldier, if a touch young as well. There had been an odd feeling about him, a sense of danger that she would rather not discover firsthand. "It was an odd meeting, truthfully. I had expected bandits, not humans arguing over which country to show me from the air." She shrugged. "Still, our meeting today was only made possible by humans, ironically enough. Were it not for them I would still be on the Ilian border."
Nayru paused, not quite sure how to continue. She knew very little of Aerious, but his opinions on humans so far had been almost depressingly negative. She could certainly empathize with some of it, but held no grudge against them herself. It was worth watching her words more carefully than usual, though. She carefully sat on an upturned boulder, not wanting to join Aerious in leaning against the spire proper for fear of intruding on his personal space, but not wanting to remain standing if their conversation continued for too long. "I do not prefer to think of humans as tools or thralls, but they can prove useful in the oddest of ways, can they not?" No, that came out sounding horribly odd - as though she had spent too much effort on distancing herself from that attitude and in doing so painted herself as someone entirely too aware of that mindset. It was interesting how much she was paying attention to the important behind her words, Nayru decided. Much more taxing than normal speech.
She inspected the back of her hand, the weave of the fabric, how it snaked around her wrist, as Aerious took the conversation forwards. She was rapidly getting the feeling that he had been quite frank in admitting his bluntness earlier - he seemed the sort to want to get to the heart of a matter immediately, to belay small talk when there was work to be done. There was also an underlying current of only being interested in others so long as they had something useful to him, she vaguely felt, but it was more an unsubstantiated hunch based on a tenuous gut feeling than anything solid. Still, while they weren't always right, sensations of that sort often led to knowledge; even if the truth was something entirely different than the initial sensation. that initial knowledge of something off often lead her to look beneath the veneer of another's words to ascertain the truth beneath.
"Our sort can ill afford to meddle too closely with the affairs of mortals, I feel. The danger of being ousted, of being hunted down - while we can effortlessly kill one or two or ten soldiers, ballista, wyvern riders, even skilled archers... each one alone poses minimal threat, and yet combined they are more than the sum of their parts, as proven all too often in the past." She wasn't quite foolhardy enough to make a direct Scouring reference right off the bat, but she did hope to find out more about the seed of hatred nestled in Aerious's bosom, and if he volunteered information based on small hooks like that - well, all the better. "I wander in search of knowledge, I suppose. Arcadia taught me the past, but to learn of the world as it is now, to come to know humans in all their glory and pettiness and progress and ignorance, one must be amongst them, live their existence."
That was why she had left Arcadia, at least. Now? Nayru wasn't sure that was all there was to it. "I collect stories, knowledge of practices, of the fleeting existences of those that will be forgotten within a generation. How brightly they shine in the brief flicker of light illuminating their lives, or how they turn away from honor, from doing the right thing no matter how difficult." When put like that, it almost sounded noble - or pointless. "I suppose I fashion myself somewhat of a lorekeeper. If I can remember the existence of one who accomplished something worth doing, even if history forgets them, then their deeds live on with me. They live on within me. Everything in this world has a story worth listening to, from a hero's trusty blade, an extension of the self, to the villain he cut down."
And far too many stories went forever untold, forgotten by those who should know of them, deserted by time. "There seems to be little room in this day and age for our kind to do anything particularly heroic, given the attention it would bring - I for one do not aspire to live my life serving the mad demands of an arrogant human king in return for a pitiful mockery of 'freedom' in his lands, leading armies of humans to kill other humans in pointless territorial bickerings." It came out with more vehemence than she had anticipated, but it was a subject she had worried about countless times over the years, and still one of her greatest concerns during her travels.
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Aerious
Manakete
The Foul Destroyer
It takes pressure and time to make diamonds.
Posts: 496
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Post by Aerious on Dec 24, 2011 21:33:49 GMT -6
Aerious remained silent while she spoke. He observed her, her mannerisms, the way she looked around, the way she spoke, but said not a word until she was done. When she'd finished, he let a slight smile tug at his lips.
"Well said. But you need not guard yourself with me. This world is full of many humans and dragons with different views. All of them can have worth, if the correct steps are taken. Humans that reach such levels of skill and worth are rare indeed, but when one meets them, one might see a glimpse of hope for the race as a whole. I, myself, have met several humans like that, during the return of the Seven last decade. Some I fought with, some I fought against. But for every truly powerful and proud human, there are millions on millions of worthless, traitorous, shortsighted dregs." He seemed to be spitting the words as he spoke them now.
"I can respect the heroes of that war past, for they fought to defeat a man who had defied nature, all for personal power. But the Seven 'Heroes', just a title given to the greatest murderers of their time. Humans no longer wished to share this land, when we could have easily annihilated them when their species hadn't even learned metallurgy, and had the gall to force us out like this land was theirs by some divine right."
Aerious reached under his shirt and pulled on a small metal chain. As he did, a golden stone became visible as he held it between his fingers.
"Tell me 'Lorekeeper'." He said with a half smile, it was clear he hadn't meant it to be insulting. "Do you know the real reason we are chained to these stones? It was not always the case. Not until the Scouring anyway..." He paused for a moment before finishing with a statement that might pique her curiosity.
"These stones are the ultimate proof of what a human will do to win."
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 25, 2011 1:54:05 GMT -6
It was interesting, she thought, how he could go from optimism to hatred in just a few short sentences. There was a story behind that, she knew - something, or a succession of events, had hardened his heart to so much of humanity. Was it simply a natural progression for one who wandered for long enough? Nayru certainly didn't hate humans, but she had experienced how heartless, how outright monstrous they could be, and had found it quite difficult to truly trust any of them since. If she kept on this path, if she continued to experience humanity in its rawest element, if she ever got involved directly in the wars of humans, as it sounded like Aerious had - would she end up with just as much stored bitterness?
It was a depressing thought, but there was also a tinge of optimism, of hope that rang through his words. Heroes. It was an interesting word, made all the more complex by the idea of humanity's greatest "heroes" having been monsters intent on butchering dragons for no better reason than that they wanted the world to themselves. If there were real heroes, though, men and women whose stories actually deserved to be told - perhaps she ought to search for them, rather than wandering blindly? The idea of deciding how mch a human was worth, whether or not they qualified as "heroic" enough to deserve immortalizing in her memory, didn't sit entirely right with her. She was no god, in no position to decide the objective worth of humans.
Still, the seed was planted, gradually sending out roots as it grew. Where it would lead her as it matured - that remained for a story far in the future, through events she could not foresee. Nayru had no clue of its import at the time, focusing instead on the golden stone her companion had pulled out. A dragonstone. She knew it instantly as though it had been shouted from the mountaintops, in that curious way that dragons could always recognize a dragonstone that she had never been able to adequately explain, even to herself. The manakete pondered her older kin's question in silence, mulling it over as her brow creased in concentration. The real reason? The stones allowed dragons to assume human form, obviously.
It was curious, though - dragonstones were certainly nonexistent before the Scouring, and dragons... had been able to turn into humanoid forms then, had they not? It was actually odd that she had never really thought about it before, Nayru realized - she had always taken it for granted that her Arcadian teachers had said all there was to be said on the subject, not having any real reason to hide anything, and truthfully she had always been more interested in humans anyways. Even in Arcadia, where one could assume dragon form without being hunted down, the simple fact of space limitations and humans everywhere meant that even the oldest dragons spent nearly all of their time in human forms.
A small part of her subconscious noted that her blank expression had dissolved somewhat as her entire focus had attacked the problem, her thought obvious on her face, in her eyes, but it seemed so much less important than the real issue at hand, as did the small furrows her clenched fingers were leaving in the stone. "They - allow us to assume human form, do they not?" It was a question and a statement all in one, the halting phrasing making all the more evident her confusion. "Something about the legendary weapons wreaking havoc on the fabric of reality, and our need to be in human form more often... no, that isn't right. Is it?" Her stolid disposition had dissolved, replaced with the ever-curious younger Nayru that had annoyed her instructors to the brink of madness with an insatiable lust for knowledge that could not be quenched. But even if the dragonstones made staying in human form easier... "what happens when they run out?"
If she was to be perfectly honest with herself - Nayru had made use of hers so rarely that she had never really thought about it. Yes, over time they tended to weaken, but when one was effectively immortal anyways and rarely used something, questions came up less often. So much for not taking things for granted! What the humans had done to win - did this have something to do with the end of the Scouring? No one had ever been very clear on exactly what happened there, given that Arcadian dragons had already sequestered themselves in Arcadia, and any dragons actually at the climactic finale had either died or been banished to the other realm they were said to still inhabit.
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Aerious
Manakete
The Foul Destroyer
It takes pressure and time to make diamonds.
Posts: 496
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Post by Aerious on Dec 25, 2011 8:24:21 GMT -6
Aerious waited. Centuries had taught him to be patient, even if one didn't see it in his actions. He arched an eyebrow and allowed himself a full smile when he heard her cautious explanation.
"Very good. Most do not know that. Allow me to fill in the gaps in your story." He said, taking a breath as an old geezer preparing a long story for his grandchildren. "Long, long ago, before the Scouring, we lived here peacefully with humanity. All dragons and humans know this, though humanity views it as legend now, but I digress. In that time, yes dragons could take a human form, but that was only for convenience. If we wished to remain in our true form, it was just as simple. When the Scouring began, the wars that covered the land were unimaginable. Dragons had power, of course, but humans had numbers. Dragons, who are used to having large amounts of time to debate anything, were not prepared for the maddening pace of the humans recovery and assault. Meanwhile, it takes a human twenty years or so to reach maturity, it takes a dragon four hundred. Even with these difficulties, the dragons still held the advantage, until those weapons were made..."
He paused, glancing up at the luminous sky. The stars had come out now, and bathed the pair of them in the celestial light. "It has been called the 'Ending Winter' by our kind. When the power of the Eight Weapons collided with dragon might in one horrible battle. The resulting release of energy was so much that the world was altered forever. It snowed all across the globe, even in the Western Isle and Nabata. A thick blanket of white covered the entire world, but that was not all. In that fight, the clash of power was so strong that it changed the world. The 'Divine' Weapons lost much of their power, and so did we. This world became a place fit only for humans. It is why most dragons stay like this, our power contained into these little rocks." He held his stone up, so she could see it closely. "To remain in dragon form in this world is exhausting. Even I cannot maintain it for long. Humans wanted so desperately to win the war that they changed the world to make themselves dominant."
She'd had one last question, and this one he knew from personal experience. "Your dragonstone is the vessel for your true power. If you lose it, you will be weaker then even a normal human. It takes focus and concentration to restore your power, rest in human form. Take caution to ration out what you do have, or you may find yourself lacking it when you need it most."
Aerious hadn't let his stone run out in a long time, but the one time he had...well he'd nearly joined his ancestors then.
"Hmm, I seem to have prattled on..." He remarked, considering how long his story was. "I will now ask a question of you. What do you think of what you have seen? It may be that I have seen more then you, but I have not seen the same as you. What do you view in this world that you wander?"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 26, 2011 3:37:44 GMT -6
OOC: THE SOURING! THE LEMON CATASTROPHE. Huehuehuehue sorry that typo made me giggle like a Japanese schoolgirl. "So desperate to win that they would rend the world itself? I suppose that losing the power from a few weapons was nothing as devastating as driving dragons from the world. Their world. For the time being. And we? We are left to live in the ruins of a grander age, knowing the majesty of what was, what the world was like when humans and dragons alike could live together in peace and propserity." It was a melancholy thought, but she caught herself wondering if it had actually been quite so amazing then. Human and dragon alike tended to remember the past as rosier than it had actually been - it made her wonder if Arcadia was the exception or the rule to dragon-human coexistence. For that matter, what had set off such a horrible war? What had humanity been so afraid of that they would fight to the detriment of the planet itself? She could understand territorial fights, fighting for one's family, even a country, but to willingly go forth into battle, ready to tear the world asunder to get one's way was antithesis to her understanding of war. Still, in a way that it was amusing that she had unconsciously been doing the exact right thing in conserving dragonstone charges so frugally. "I suppose that my usual conflict avoidance seems to be doing some good - I have used precious few charges in my travels, generally relying on physical reinforcement for combat I cannot avoid. Opportunities to safely assume our natural forms are few and far between with so many witnesses, are they not?" A sad truth, but a fact of life nonetheless. "I wonder if... if the world will ever change, that we can be what we were once more? Time cannot be rewound, but - if humans could leave aside the legends of mindless monsters from their tales of the Scouring and see the real us..."It sounded stupid even to her. "I apologize for my idle mumblings - it was nothing but a flight of immature fancy, of willfully ignoring the realities of this world in which we live. History is not changed by idle thoughts, but by actions." She looked up, a cross between resolute and questioning, asking a question that she was not so much asking Aerious as herself and the world itself. "But dreams are the fabric from which change is wrought, are they not? Perhaps there is room in this world of ours for dreams... though only those with the strength to adhere to their visions could ever hope to change the world to meet them."Nayru could not fathom the strength of will it would take to change the world so dramatically, no matter how much she wanted to. "Whether through strength of arms or a demagogue of such charisma that mankind and dragonkin alike would follow them willingly, such leaders are exceeding rare - and how would they cut through the dogma of Etruria, the human cameradie of Ostia, of the resentment and buried rage of the dragons so wronged, of the hatred of humans who lost so many ancestors to our kind?"She continued without waiting for an answer, speaking thoutfully, partially in a reverie as she listened to her own words, her own thoughts as they spilled out. The manakete was quite aware that they were not quite the ordered thoughts and structured phrasing she preferred, but her mind had more important things to worry about. "You ask me what I have seen? Misery. War. Pain. Sons ripped from their families to fight and die in meaningless wars for their "betters," for abstract concepts like religion or honor. Children starving to death on the streets, their parents drunkards or dead. Sovereign nations buckering like children over minor territory disputes, constantly vying for power."Her voice continued to rise in intensity, the memories of the horrors she had witnessed flowing into her mind once more, the stories she had collected. "Children sold into slavery and prostitution. Men willing to kill a woman just for her attire."Nayru stopped abruptly, fingers rising to her earring again. She couldn't really help it - it was calming, and she definitely needed the help to steady her breathing and keep her emotions under control before continuing. "But I have also seen the good in humans - families of beggars sacrificing everything to keep each other alive. Soldiers shielding their friends with their bodies, willing to give their own lives to their brethren, or disobeying orders from an officer to slaughter innocents, even knowing that naught but the gallows awaits them for treason to king and country. Merchants who only look to ply their trade and make a decent living, protitutes who do their best to spare new girls the horrors they experience daily."She smiled, gently, fondly, memories surfacing once more. "Dancers who are willing to teach a Nabatan 'princess' their refined movements, girls who want nothing more than to become the greatest and most noble pegasus knight of all time." Nayru looked Aerious in the eye, forcing herself to continue, even if her conclusions were different from the older dragon's, even if he saw her as naive for it. "I have seen a world that is rotten to the core, a species so fractured by dissent that any hint of the cameradie with which they beat back our kind is long since gone - but I have also seen countless good people amongst that teeming throng of lost sheep, men and women and children who struggle against adversity to do the right thing, even if they have not the strength to change the world.""There may be millions of worthless humans, but there are countless millions more who deserve none of our ire for the atrocities of the Scouring, who deserve none of the suffering they endure under their greedy kings and conniving religious leaders. I have seen a world ripe for change, a world whose heart bleeds black from the betrayal their kind enacted upon us once, a world where perhaps a truly great man or woman could come forth to lead us all into a brighter future."Nayru ceased abruptly again, realizing that she had begun to lean forwards slightly, wrapped up in her own rhetoric. "I am not that woman. I have not the strength or the experience, nor the faintest idea of how to go about it. I am not the oldest dragon, the wisest dragon, not even the wisest amongst humans. Perhaps you are correct - another five centuries, or ten, and I will come to see the world as you do. But for now, I can do nothing but travel the world, trying to leave it a little brighter in my wake, and hope that I am right, that statistical improbability is overcome by the ideals of a single dreamer, and that it happens in our lifetimes."Yeah, tell the guy who doesn't like most humans that you think he's wrong, even though he has who knows how many centuries of experience on you. It was a reminder of her own headstrong immaturity, as much as she liked to appear the mysterious wise woman, but dammit if she didn't believe that there were too many humans who had deserved so much better than the lot life had given them. There was nothing that the common folk could do to sway the mad dreams of their rulers. "If only we could all be strong, in spirit as well as body. A world of heroes, of men and women all willing to lay down their lives for peace." She shook her head, the idea tantalizing, but impossible. "But it will never be, or if it will, I cannot conceive of it. Perhaps a dreamer will someday find a way to make it happen, but I cannot hold an ideal that seems so blatantly impossible."[OOC: sorry, I feel like it's kinda textbarf and I did a bad job of giving a sense of Nayru's animation throughout it, but it's kinda late and I'm tired and been working on this too long. Next post will be better. And more concise. >_> ALSO, UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG FOR THIS POST youtu.be/n3ZdPkBAfQM]
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Aerious
Manakete
The Foul Destroyer
It takes pressure and time to make diamonds.
Posts: 496
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Post by Aerious on Dec 26, 2011 12:11:53 GMT -6
Aerious listened, just sat back and listened to the girl recount her experiences. All that she had seen, all that she had felt in her life. And, while some might have closed their minds off to such thoughts, Aerious was not as obvious as many people would have believed.
In truth, he wanted desperately to believe in the world she spoke of. The world before the Scouring, with no violence, no fighting among them, but he'd long since given up hope in such a thing as a dream. The only way they could maintain it was to seal it off from the rest of the world in a fragile prison, like a soap bubble. That was why he hated the idea of Arcadia. It was hiding away instead of fixing anything, and calling a place like that a paradise was a cowards way out. Her words were honeyed, naive and youthful, but as she spoke, he remembered something from a millennium ago.
He'd thought that way once. What was it that caused him to forget that? To lose all hope in humanity as a whole? Images flew into his mind, ones he'd been trying to forget for so, so long. A house, in Etruria...fire flickering from the wooden walls as the shouts from the outside rose high into the night. The girl, she might have been asleep if her face wasn't so pale. That long golden hair...how could he have forgotten it, like strands of gold. And then the...
Aerious snapped back to reality when he felt his claws cutting into his hand, so tightly were his fists clenched. With a roar he lashed out, punching at the spire. His stone glowed briefly, and the rock splintered and cracked under the sealed power. He paused, realizing that Nayru may have taken the outburst the wrong way.
"I am sorry. I do, honestly and truly, wish that what you hope for could be possible. Once, long long ago, I would have agreed with you. But humans.,..they took something precious from me. I placed my trust in them, and they betrayed me and wounded me grievously." He paused, removing his hand from the rock as it splintered and cracked in his wake. "There is no way to know which humans are loyal, which are honorable and just, and which are the fear driven cowards."
He looked to her, but he wasn't angry. Instead, for the first time in generations, he had that same expression from that time. That look, as if something deep inside him had died. He kept the thought, the emotion, hidden away, buried under years of hatred and resentment. But now, it had clawed it's way to the surface, and he was being reminded of just what he'd lost thanks to this level of foolish nativity.
"I swore a long time ago that I would never show weakness or trust to a human again. So the tragedy of the past would never be repeated. If you continue to place trust in them, eventually that trust will be betrayed. The more weakness you let them see, the greater the wound when they do, inevitably, betray you."
He stopped to think, sighing to himself. "It'd been so long, but I still cannot forgive them. I've met some truly heroic humans since then, but that wound is too old, too deep. It will likely fester until the end of my days."
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 27, 2011 0:22:45 GMT -6
It took every bit of willpower she could muster not to cower when Aerious lost control; even if it was only for a moment, it seemed an eternity. The sheer weight of essence erupting from his dragonstone was crushing, as though the air itself had turned to lead. Nayru hoped that the fear hadn't reached her eyes, been too obvious to a man momentarily lost in memories and emotion, but there was precious little that she could do to change that now. She remained silent as he composed himself, erected the walls keeping his emotions in once more, but there were cracks in the facade, hairline fractures given more weight as he haltingly replied, admitting the story of his loss.
"I am - sorry." It sounded woefully inadequate, like tossing a few coin at a drowning man, but there were no words to adequately meet an admission like that. She had suspected that he had lost loved ones to humans, likely during the Scouring, but for the wounds to still be so fresh untold centuries later suggested that that what he had lost had been precious indeed. She had never been through that, never managed to put enough trust in a human or even another dragon that its being rent from her could shatter her world so thoroughly, and here she was nearly lecturing someone who had been forced to cope with loss so profound. "Nothing I can say will..." she trailed off, still nervous, looking down at the dirt and stones littering the ground "bring them back. I did not mean to reopen old wounds."
What he had lost, she couldn't know. A loved one, whether human or dragon, perhaps an item of great value, but it was clearly something precious to him. She had certainly done an excellent job of being uplifting and optimistic there! Nayru cursed the decision to let it all spill out without choosing her words more carefully, wondering if perhaps she might have avoided this reaction had she tried harder. "I - you have given me much to think about already, from an opportunity for arraying and examing my own thoughts, to articulating feelings I could not on my own. It may be, that is to say," she looked up, cautiously hopeful, "if there is anything I can do for you? I am no font of wisdom, but if nothing else, I can at least... hear your story, bear witness to what you would share."
Maybe she could at least do that right. It had hit her, as he spoke, that much of their conversation so far had been entirely about her; her travels, her views on the world, her idealistic drivel. "What has been lost can never be restored, but-" Nayru paused, realizing that she had to word this very carefully to avoid sounding like she was belittling his loss, "-cutting yourself off entirely also takes from you the enjoyment of the good things in life." Without knowing anything of his scars, there was little else relevant she could say; she trailed off uncertainly, not wanting to assume anything. She wasn't particularly empathic, and by particularly she meant at all, but there was a feeling of emotional weight to the air that not even she could miss.
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Aerious
Manakete
The Foul Destroyer
It takes pressure and time to make diamonds.
Posts: 496
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Post by Aerious on Dec 27, 2011 11:04:24 GMT -6
Aerious had no great desire to relive the story, but then he realized. It had been so long with him trying to forget it, that he almost had. How had it started again? Almost a thousand years ago...so long removed, and still it hurt him so.
"I suppose." He responded, his voice a low growl more then words. "It is a very long story." He said, as if a warning to her. But when she did not move, he nodded his head and began reaching deep into his memories. "A long time ago, I was young and idealistic. The Scouring was a few human generations over, but still fresh in the memories of mortals. In those times, I thought that perhaps humans were capable of more. After all, they had driven us off of this world, surely there must be some strength in there that we simply did not see. So I traveled, much as you do. Eventually, my travels lead me to a town in what is now Etruria. A small farming community, they had nothing, but gave of it willingly when I arrived. They confessed they had their own problems in this perfect little community, a local bandit problem. Well..." He said with a half smirk. "What threat are a group of brigands to one such as us? That night, I left the village and annihilated those brigands. When I returned to the town, they were overjoyed to hear that the Bandit's would not return. I remained there for a decade or so, content to assume the normal life of a human for a time. Farming or animal herding, mundane tasks to be sure, but oddly satisfying. It had been so long since I'd used my dragonstone, since I'd had to worry about hiding myself, that I'd forgotten what it means to fear. I became a human, and I didn't object to it."
He paused for a moment, sighing. This was the part of the story that was hard to tell. "In time I was married, in so far as farmers ever do, and..." His voice cracked for a moment, but he restored it. "A daughter. I called her Alina. I still remember, the golden shine of her hair, the crystal blue eyes, even the humans could tell that she was special. A half dragon, her fate was to be forever torn between our two peoples, but I would not allow that. She was my daughter, after all, and she would know a happy life."
Another pause, agonizing in nature. And then he continued. "It was with her birth and growth that people began to notice something odd. She had reached five years old, I had been in town for over fifteen years, yet I looked not a day older then the moment I'd passed in. And then even she seemed to stop aging. It began to scare people, and they began to ask questions. I knew that the time was going to come when we had to leave, and it tore me up to have to admit it. And so, one night I took my wife outside of the town, to a large meadow, and I told her the truth I had hidden from her for so long. I couldn't read her reaction at the time, but when I think about it now, I should have realized something was wrong. I remained out of town for a bit longer, thinking to myself, while she returned. When I finally did return, I remember thinking an odd air was around the town. Something ominous, not peaceful as it usually was at night. So I returned to my house, and went to see my daughter, as I always did. What I saw there...haunts me to this day. One could have assumed she was asleep, were her skin not so pale."
Aerious shook his head fiercely, knocking away a tear he felt forming. He had to continue now, even though the rest should be obvious. "While I was in shock...I head someone behind me. I could tell they held steel, I heard the scrape as it slid out of a leather sheath. I turned and struck, and ended the fight in a blow. The killer, who still has the poisonous herb in their other hand, was my wife. She'd killed, her own flesh and blood, because she was too terrified of me. I who had done nothing but help them for fifteen years, who had shown them nothing but kindness, and for that she murdered an innocent child for no reason other then her blood. As I picked up my daughter, I smelled the smoke rising around us. The entire village knew, they'd all agreed to this."
He now looked up to meet her gaze, the loss in his eyes now much clearer then it was before. "All that remains of that village is a single unmarked grave, on a patch of scorched earth. For the only innocent person that ever lived there."
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 27, 2011 19:28:46 GMT -6
"Violence... to end the violence."It came out as a murmur; neither a question or an accusation, but a sad statement of fact, of acknowledging the vicious cycle that had been at the core of all too many feuds, of the concept of revenge itself. Perhaps it was also an admission that sometimes that cycle was necessary; no other act could have repaid betrayal of that magnitude, the inhumanity of the villagers so extreme that what he had done seemed simply a legitimate reprisal. How would a human see it, she wondered? Would they focus on the quantity of human deaths, or would they see the justice in it? She could not meet the other dragon's gaze. There was nothing right with the situation, no truly innocent side save the girl, but how was one to respond to that? The one thing they loved most in the world, a living symbol of their hopes and dreams, of their ideals for a better world, crushed and shattered by his other love. Nayru realized that she was in far over her head; she had nothing that could compare to having been betrayed so absolutely, had her ideals so thoroughly trodden over. It was humbling, in a curious way; a reminder that she still had so much to experience, and a grim spectre of why she found it so inordinately difficult to actually trust humans. She had never been betrayed so horrifically, but numerous smaller occasions had familiarized her with what humans were capable of. Nayru bowed her head, a lame attempt to pay her respects to the dead, remembering an old Sacaen prayer she had heard long ago. Her voice almost cracked, the crushing atmosphere impossible to ignore, but what was a little discomfort to bear compared to what Aerious had been forced to live with for a millennium? "May her body rest with Mother Earth, her spirit eternally aloft with Father Sky." She had heard it in Sacae, but strongly suspected that its origins were much more ancient, draconic in nature: it spoke to her of the ageless yearning all dragons held for the sky, the endless heights that were their domain. The idea that even in death, as the body returned to the earth that had spawned it, the skies would welcome the spirit of the deceased for all eternity. It had a certain pleasant ring to it, and while she didn't know that she believed in it, she couldn't help but hope that it was true, for the sake of his daughter alone. How could she even respond to that? There was no magic phrase that would resurrect the girl, ease his pain in a single clever bit of wording. There was nothing that could change the nature of that betrayal, that could resurrect his daughter, but she was bound by honor and by her own ideals to do what little she could to attempt it. "...She must have been beautiful." Both the girl, and what she represented. Nayru wondered how much of Aerious had died alongside the girl. His daughter. "Nothing I can say can change the tragedy of what happened, much as I would, had I that right." Everyone would. Everyone had things in their past that they would change if only they could; some more trivial than others, but hardship was part and parcel of every life. Even the most pampered aristocrat could not lie on his deathbed and truly say that everything they had endured had been pleasant and easy. And yet - it was hardship that made men out of boys, that taught wisdom where once there had been youthful idealism. If it could simply be wished away, if the trials and tribulations of life had no meaning, then whence would come true strength of will? "It may not be my place to say this, but..." It just seemed so horrible to have to shoulder that burden forever, alone. "...Perhaps it falls to us to make this world one in which she could have lived happily." She stared at the crater Aerious had left in the rock, wishing that the words would come more easily, hoping that they didn't sound like useless platitudes. "If - I pray that I am not too presumptuous, but I do not believe that she would have wanted so much of you to die alongside her." What daughter would? "Changing the world not for transient ideals, for idealistic notions, but for a girl who deserved so much more."Nayru rose to her full height, slowly, thoughtfully, a half-baked idea forming in her head. "I would see that world come to pass. If a hero will not stand forth to make it happen, then that world may have to settle for us instead."Theme that made me think of Aerious's story: youtu.be/2La8UWwjcvYNayru's speech: youtu.be/bPLuM4Jv7WE
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Aerious
Manakete
The Foul Destroyer
It takes pressure and time to make diamonds.
Posts: 496
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Post by Aerious on Dec 27, 2011 20:26:13 GMT -6
Aerious was always a good listener. Even if he didn't heed the words, he would always allow people to speak before he allowed himself a rebuttal. When she'd finished, to her surprise, he laughed. But not a pleasant laugh, a dark laugh devoid of mirth and love. A laugh one might here from an assassin staring over their latest job. There was no humor in life, just a cruel irony that served to cause a dark fog to cloud his mind.
"What would she have wanted? Hah, how pointless. Consider, Nayru, what life she would have had if I could have somehow saved her? We may be few in number, but she is none in number. How long would she live, how would she be ostracized for who she was, never accepted fully by either? Perhaps a painless death was the best gift I could have given her." He seemed completely emotionless now. "Humanity is ill in need of a dragon to save them, they've doomed themselves. Or have you not felt the change in this world recently? A dark, foreboding feeling, while humans tell tales of the dead rising, and beasts not of this world preying on man and beast alike."
He waved a hand as if dismissing her claim. "Of course dragons could save them from themselves, but then what? Humanity will never learn, they will never grow beyond this child like behavior. Perhaps best to let this coming storm wipe them away totally."
Aerious looked around them, at the darkness that surrounded them. The moon in the sky seemed obscured by a cloud, leaving the area pitch black. He spoke once again.
"It was important to remember that story. To remember how much has been lost by them. For so long I hated, without remembering the why. But now, let them reap the fruits of death that they have sown. What dangers they bring upon themselves are not so to us. For death does not last, and our people can endure the darkness. Humanity, will not be so lucky."
He'd changed topics so quickly, he seemed like another person right now. And he gave no further details into what he was talking about.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Dec 28, 2011 1:46:23 GMT -6
It was not particularly difficult to realize that she had gotten ahead of herself the moment Aerious began to speak, and Nayru cursed herself for it. She had known from the start that pretty words and idealistic notions would not magically cure wounds that had festered for so many centuries, and she was naught but a fool for having forgotten that for even a moment.
Still. The idea lived on inside her, something to be refined, forced through the crucible of reality and forged into something far more realistic, but it would survive. She had no idea where to start, no idea if she could ever bring about change so great that human nature itself would twist to fit that dream, but - with that story on her mind, knowing what Aerious had gone though, realizing how difficult it must have been to share that story with her, she felt that she could do nothing else but attempt it. He was not the first dragon she had met, broken and bitter, and she wanted to see him a little happier someday.
For Alina's sake.
"I have heard the stories, but have never actually seen the creatures for myself." Nayru didn't bother mentioning that her senses had dulled over time, enough of her self stored away in the dragonstone that she had not actually sensed the creatures; a foreboding feeling at most, a vague sense of unease that never seemed to lead anywhere. "Ostia has been struck down, too, but I know precious few details regarding that." The creatures had never seemed real, nothing solid enough to actually worry about. Phantoms at the edge of her perceptions at worst.
She chuckled lightly, the humor not reaching her eyes. "I said a world she could have lived in - for her sake, not for that of humanity." What she meant, Nayru wasn't exactly sure. It was not the dark humor of Aerious a moment before, nor a hidden invitation to annihilate humanity. It was at most a reminder that the paths of different dreams could converge without necessarily meaning that one dreamer shared a dream wholesale with another, but she wasn't sure exactly what it meant to Aerious, or to her personally.
The idea of hiding away again, though, of turning tail and surviving by running away to Arcadia, was loathsome. "Are we to hide away in Arcadia, then? Put our heads into the sand and wait for the storm to blow over, hoping that the world has not been irreparably broken by the time we emerge from our hiding places? Dragons were once the lords of this world, protectors and rulers in one. It seems ill-fitting to have our rule resume simply because we hid away from trouble until our enemies destroyed each other."
Nayru wasn't entirely certain that she liked the effect that Aerious had on her perceptions, but it was impossible to deny that their meeting had already brought her thoughts more sharply into focus than before, honed them in ways she had not anticipated. As much as she disagreed with him in what he said, she found herself agreeing with other bits and pieces of his words, or at least more willing to consider them.
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RANDOM VAGUELY FITTING QUOTE just something to ponder. Nayru doesn't have a tragic past, not exactly - but there are certainly some things she went through that helped make her who she is today.
“People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.” - Milan Kundera
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Aerious
Manakete
The Foul Destroyer
It takes pressure and time to make diamonds.
Posts: 496
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Post by Aerious on Dec 28, 2011 7:49:22 GMT -6
OOC: Nice Quote. Very fitting.
IC:
"And a thousand years ago we did protect them! And look where we are now!" He shouted. "Thrown away! Cast aside like a child's toy!" He stopped, restraining his anger. To lash out was in human nature, not in theirs. He needed to be calm, collected, and rational.
"Under Ostia, there was a tomb. One of the eight murderers, Roland, slept there. Upon the walls, there was writing in a language older then any human memory on this land. Thankfully I still remembered how to read it, because it reminded me of what exactly the humans chased away."
He seemed calmer now, at least not as angry as he had been. "The reason you have not seen these dark creatures is the truth of those ancient words. Those creatures fear us, they can sense our power and they remember it as being what kept them confined for a thousand years. When we left the world, the only one of the heroes with any sight for the future, the one they call Elimine, attempted to keep this evil contained as well. It feeds from humanity's hate, anger, and fear. Dragon's do not posses such emotions, at least not when we were here as a species. Spend enough time among humans, and even we can fall victim to fits of emotion."
Now was his question for her, to see just what that idealism had been tempered with. "So I place the question to you, what should we do? We could certainly aid humanity with the tide that comes, but then what? Revealing ourselves to be cast aside by them again when it is over? They destroyed their protection, their emotion weakened the seal their own set up, and now we should pull them from their own doom?"
He scoffed. "Exactly what part of this species is deserving of life?"
And once again, he stopped. Even in his wounded heart, he knew this wasn't right. He may be one of the last dragons, but he was alive and free, here and now. There must have been some purpose to his existence, and perhaps this was it.
"I've said my peace." He finished. "So, I ask this of you. I would care to travel with you, to see the future you will make. Whatever decision you make, I will see it through to the end. I am one who has long since given up his future, but you...you still have hope for more. At least then let me have some value in seeing yours come to fruition."
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