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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Aug 3, 2014 20:36:50 GMT -6
[Set ~50 years in the past, and nowhere near any arenas]
Nayru's brow remained furrowed as she cautiously wended her way between the trees, occasionally taking a suspicious glance at the strangely non-clouded sky. A storm was coming, she could almost taste it, and yet the atmosphere seemed to have no interest in confirming her senses. Which, as a lightning dragon, necessarily left her feeling more than a bit uneasy. Were her senses going completely haywire? Was it an unnatural storm? Was its source being somehow obfuscated? None of the options she could think of did much to help with her unease, and when the best case scenario was that her innate connection to the element that literally defined her existence wasn't working anymore, the subject bore special investigation rather than simply shrugging it off as random happenstance.
Tracks... nothing that she could see particularly human, at least not obviously so, but wildlife. Deer, probably, or elk or whatever the hell humans called them. The dragon continued to wrack her brain as she walked. She didn't... think her senses were particularly off, or at least she couldn't feel anything wrong. Which didn't mean they weren't, but nothing seemed different, and she wasn't on the verge of - well, she didn't need to remind herself too much of what had happened not even two decades ago in Ilia. Nayru sighed, her face grim as she reigned her emotions in. The past was something she could not change, but not even the passage of time could erase her knowledge of her own crimes.
An unnatural storm... that was perhaps even more worrying, but she had no idea why a magic user powerful enough to bend the very atmosphere itself to their will would waste that talent just blowing a hole in some backwater Lycian territory. Granted, Laus wasn't the smallest and least of all Lycia, but if someone really wanted to cause a stir, Ostia would be the obvious target. She was completely clueless to the politics of the area, but had heard nothing of impending war - or doom - from villagers recently. As for the power needed to hide... whatever... the white-haired dragon growled in frustration, giving up on that train of thought as she realized just how far down the rabbit hole of madness she was beginning to go as she desperately searched for an answer.
The clearing came before she even realized it was there, and Nayru paused at its edge, one hand resting on the rough bark of the nearest tree to her left, taking it in. A cottage? She hadn't heard of anyone living out here, and there certainly wasn't anything resembling a proper farm, much less a bustling family, to explain it away. Why was a random cottage sitting in the middle of one of the more heavily wooded areas in Laus? ...Maybe there had been something, she remembered. Not haunted, but there had been some mention of an area villagers mostly avoided.
Something was here. Regardless of how accurate her senses might otherwise be, She could literally taste the burnt ozone in the air, similar and yet very different to the feeling she knew all too well from the last moments of clarity and consciousness she had before transforming as heaven and earth raged around her, consuming her body and soul as the storm broke loose. Nayru took a deep breath, pushing the memories away even as they summoned the memories of what came after, when she regained control and saw what she had left in her wake. Something... like that was here. Something simultaneously completely alien and yet utterly familiar.
Was it... possible?
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Marcus
Manakete
Dragon Reborn
Hell and back is a long way to go, but my journey's only begun.
Posts: 176
Profession: Wanderer
Affinity: Dark
Dragon Element: Lightning
Profile: Marcus
OoC Alias: Marc
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Post by Marcus on Nov 19, 2014 19:36:16 GMT -6
The day had started out just like any other. Marcus had risen early while the dew was still setting and stalked animals through the forest. It was a necessity that he hunt, but the young dragon also drew a profound pleasure from it. He never felt more alive than when he was sneaking through the treetops as Hassan scurried through the underbrush below, rooting out their next kill. Then Marcus would spring from the trees and, tapping into the power of his dragonstone, come crashing down on his prey. Most often he would catch smaller animals or, when he was lucky, a deer, but on rare occasion a foolish hunter or a lost bandit would stumble into his neck of the woods. However, this had not been one of those days and the hunt had ended routinely enough, Marcus having killed a healthy-looking deer. Most days, he would have carried the kill back to the cottage he had tucked away in a nearby clearing, but today he was feeling particularly impatient. He dug into his prey with relish, eating his fill quickly. Letting out a satisfied belch, he rose to his feet. He would leave the rest of the deer to the scavengers.
Wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his very worn robe, Marcus took in a breath. The forest was alive this morning, more so than usual. There was a strange energy in the air, as if the air itself had been charged with the same electricity that flowed through him. It was unsettling. Rolling his shoulders, he adjusted his robes so that he could unfurl his wings from their cramped position. He stretched them to their full length, casting a rather ominous and terrifying shadow in front of him. He needed to fly. Maybe the air above the forest would be different. Maybe he could see what was causing this odd phenomenon. He just needed to fly. Taking a running start, Marcus dashed off into the woods, flapping his wings hard. In a matter of moments, he was off the ground and heading into the sky. Flying in lazy circles, the young dragon surveyed the area of the forest that he had unofficially claimed as his territory. He hadn't done much to stake his claim, but in the time he had lived there, his mere presence in the area had caused many a legend and myth to crop up about this neck of the woods and the cottage in the clearing. It went a long way to keeping people away. But now, even from up above the trees, it felt as if something new had come to the forest. Something powerful. Perhaps the time had come again for Marcus to leave the forest.
Finishing his last loop of the area, the young dragon angled towards the clearing, folding his wings in close to his body and letting gravity do the work. He plummeted towards the ground until, at the last moment, he re-extended his wings, catching himself as he landed in a crouched position. Marcus stood, folding his large black wings behind him. He was about to enter the cottage and begin gathering his few possessions when a noise stopped him. Hassan was at his side and was growling. Hassan rarely ever growled and when he did, it meant he sensed danger. Wheeling around, he immediately began scanning the treeline. He was checking so fast that he nearly missed the woman who had been standing on the edge of the clearing. Stunned, Marcus froze where he stood. Who was this woman and how had she so foolishly stumbled into this neck of the woods?
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Nov 20, 2014 6:29:50 GMT -6
An ebon shadow, tattered and leathery in form and function - her initial glimpse of Marcus dredged up a strange familiarity in her memories that seemed to be attached to nothing in particular, a recognition towards something she had never known. Déjà vu? The moment passed as quickly as it had come, leaving Nayru thoroughly unsatisfied with the explanation and possibilities alike. Déjà vu was simply a trick of the mind; this had been - something more.
Maybe.
Or maybe not? It was certainly true that the mental passageway simply ceased abruptly, cessation into nothingness. A false end? The remnants of something long since rent from her, a hint towards... something? Or maybe she was overthinking it. This was hardly the first dragon with black wings she had ever known, Nayru remembered with sudden, painful clarity. And it was a dragon, as she had realized in short order after the initial surprise; a young man, wild both in demeanor and appearance. Feral? The whole adventure had left her on edge, and now she suddenly understood exactly why - and unlike the average mortal, Nayru knew all too well how dangerous a feral dragon might be. From personal experience, in fact! Wait, that wasn't funny.
She smiled lightly nontheless, a reflex guided not by thought by by subconscious, at the existential humor. The irony was palpable. And also bad, because being attacked by a dragon, humanform jouten or giant scaly lizard be damned, was not how she had planned on spending her day. But then, she had not come armed - Nayru did not need to inspect herself to know that - nor did she have the look of a hunter or a soldier. Why someone who clearly subscribed to Nabatan fashion was wandering around the forests of Laus was a fair question, though, and one she did not care to ponder. Most humans took the concept of wandering at face value and stopped caring much about her in short order, immediately mentally switching tracks to attempting to learn what she had seen. For ones as sedentary as they, the world beyond their horizons was wondrous and terrifying.
For a dragon, one who had likely done a fair bit of traveling on his own... what? Nayru was stymied initially, realizing she had had very little interaction with any of her kin since leaving Arcadia. While she did not carefully consider the mechanics of a confrontation, nor intentionally assume the other drago nwas weaker than her, centuries of dealing with little more than human bandits had left her danger sense and ability to accurately gauge the danger of a situation... lacking.
But it didn't take a genius to realize that de-escalation was the better part of valor, and the Nayru then held little understanding of the appeal of fisticuffs or brawling. Conflict avoidance was something she practiced regularly, after all. Not with dragons, though, which was why it didn't even occur to her that acting exactly the same way she would have with a human, to the guy who just came flying out of the sky like a meteor, might come off oddly. Nonetheless, she stepped plainly into the clearing, raising her arms - bare save for the ornate golden bracelets - in the universal gesture for 'I come in peace' before intoning those very words in a conversational tone, her precise manner of speaking and mix of accents making it abundantly clear that the wanderer was not a native of the area.
"I come in peace."
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Marcus
Manakete
Dragon Reborn
Hell and back is a long way to go, but my journey's only begun.
Posts: 176
Profession: Wanderer
Affinity: Dark
Dragon Element: Lightning
Profile: Marcus
OoC Alias: Marc
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Post by Marcus on Nov 20, 2014 9:19:26 GMT -6
For several long moments, Marcus could only stare at this strange, new woman. She clearly wasn't a bandit. At least, she didn't look like any bandit he had ever seen. But he could also tell she wasn't from around here. Few villagers in the area ever dared to step into his clearing, let alone this neck of the woods, and none had ever met his gaze for more than a second before fleeing as fast as their human legs could carry them. Of course, the more and more he looked at her, the more obvious it became that she was far from home. Her dress, her hair, even her manner of speech was so foreign, and yet... so familiar.
There was something about the way words rolled of her tongue that brought memories flooding back to him. Memories of soft, comforting words. Of concerned tones telling him to be careful. Of scared, pained calls for help. Memories that seemed so familiar and yet not distinctly his. Was this woman...? No. She couldn't be. Yet, this woman was different. A distinct, powerful energy flowed from her. It was a feeling he had not felt since his flight from Arcadia and subsequent rescue from Nabata.
Snapping to, Marcus realized that he was still tensed and ready to strike, his wings fully stretched out behind him. He also realized that the woman had addressed him and he had yet to answer her. She didn't seem to mean him any harm, having stated as much, and she wasn't armed with any conventional weapons. Yet she clearly possessed some control of the natural energies around her. Still, he rarely got the chance to speak to anyone besides Hassan, and the wolf wasn't much for conversation. He would let his guard down for now, knowing that he could assume his true form at a moments notice.
"What are you doing here," he asked plainly, relaxing his wings. "Have the locals not told you their stories about this place?"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Nov 20, 2014 10:36:08 GMT -6
"Hmm..." Nayru regarded her counterpart with a lightly bemused smile, dropping her arms from their upraised position to cross them on her chest, one below her breasts as her left hand reached up to rest on her chin thoughtfully. She didn't have any reason to lie to him, she supposed. "Investigating the weather." Her gaze swept up and down the blonde dragon's mostly-obscured frame, her humor not quite reaching her eyes. They were not cold, but - guarded. Even knowing that they were both dragons was not enough to crack the shell she had erected around herself. Nayru was lonely, but she was also terrified of the possibilities of a real relationship, and it had been a long time indeed since she had been able to truly open up to anyone.
She didn't much care for the concept of fate, but coincidence was too nebulous an idea to lay thanks - or blame - for this meeting to. It had been a series of choices... on both of their parts, different mindsets, neither of them attempting to work towards it, and yet neither of them had taken the option to avoid it. Was that the key? Nayru wasn't entirely certain. She could have avoided this if she had truly wanted to, though, by not investigating the strange feeling... had she known subconsciously even then? Had her kin? Fate or coincidence or chance be damned, she did not understand the situation in its entirety, but she wanted to - and backing away now would forever consign it to the void.
"-And now I find myself in the eye of the storm." A quiet giggle, a joke at the expense of the universe and herself and Marcus all at once. "To be caught in the thrall of wanderlust is to ignore the judgement of others, I suppose, and yet here we are, and I none the worse for wear!" Granted, she could ignore their advice because she was an immortal superhuman monster, but that was neither here nor there. Well, it was, really. The eleph...ragon in the room. Dragophant?
Nayru paused, the humor evaporating as she abruptly switched tactics to ask the question she had been wanting to ask since realizing what he was, and previously-successfully repelling. "Why do you live alone?"
An innocent enough question, but one meant on a level beyond what the words themselves implied. Not that she was expecting the answer she was looking for, but then Nayru had no idea how to word the true query; why did he choose to live alone? Or... whatever the right way to word it was. She was an outcast from Arcadia, with little interest in the affairs of dragons, but all her life she had been surrounded by life, taunted by its simple pleasures. Even unable to form meaningful relationships or truly empathize with other mortals, never traveling more than the barest amount of time with another, she had still met countless humans and always ended up around them through fate or circumstance. Even in Arcadia she had been quite outgoing, though that had been a self she left behind long ago. Anything to avoid the... earliest memories she could hold, as vague and fragmented as they were, of the harsh heat and unforgiving, absolute emptiness of the desert.
Her attention divided between her rushing thoughts and the other dragon's response, Nayru unconsciously lifted her left arm to caress her dragonstone, hanging in plain sight from her left earring. She wasn't even really aware of her tendency to do so, but it was something the dragon did occasionally when stressed, finding its touch oddly soothing.
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Marcus
Manakete
Dragon Reborn
Hell and back is a long way to go, but my journey's only begun.
Posts: 176
Profession: Wanderer
Affinity: Dark
Dragon Element: Lightning
Profile: Marcus
OoC Alias: Marc
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Post by Marcus on Dec 10, 2014 20:08:42 GMT -6
Marcus cocked his head at this strange new woman. Her manner of speech was confusing, to say in the least. She used a lot of words that were foreign to him and the result was that her message was completely lost on him. She claimed to be investigating the weather, but he didn't know what kind of investigating one did when the weather was a nice as it was today. Of course, she had also mentioned something about a storm, so maybe she was confused. Or, perhaps she knew something he didn't. Marcus usually had a good sense about when bad weather was coming, being a lightning dragon and all, so it unnerved him that one might have sneaked up on him. There was also the possibility that she was simply speaking in metaphors. He hoped that wasn't the case. Having essentially grown up in this forest, Marcus was not one for wordplay, preferring to speak plainly and state his intent. It didn't help that the few times he ever got to talk to someone so often involved him scaring them off. Still, her last question was simple enough to understand.
While Marcus didn't actually live alone, he supposed that this woman didn't consider living with a talking wolf as living with someone. She also probably didn't know Hassan could talk, so she could be excused for mistaking him as a simple pet. He shrugged and looked vacantly off into the forest. "Who's there to live with?" he asked in response, "Not exactly many people lining up to live with a dragon. Besides, I've got all the company I need," he added, gesturing vaguely in Hassan's direction. Truthfully, he had never been much of a people person anyways. Most of the people in his life had tried to kill him at some point, and that included some family members. Of course, there were other reasons too. Reasons he wasn't even willing to admit to himself. He lacked control, and when you possessed the kind of power that he did, losing control was catastrophic. That, however, was something Marcus would certainly keep to himself. This woman was interesting, and he didn't want to scare her off just yet.
"Er, that is, I don't mind having unexpected company, it's just a very rare occasion. I'm Marchamut, or Marcus, if you prefer. I don't think I caught your name."
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jan 1, 2015 15:58:38 GMT -6
Marcus's strange gesture to empty space as 'company' was enough to leave cracks in Nayru's composure, her confusion barely evident in her face, should Marcus look to see it, and her hesitant pause all the more evidence. Was he speaking in metaphors, implying that he preferred to be alone...? Or maybe she was looking too far into this, and he was so crazy he actually imagined he had a spirit animal, a wolf or something equally ridiculous. Hah. Of course that wouldn't be it, but it was an interesting mental image.
The other dragon's use of the word dragon was not lost on her, something significant enough to refocus her attention to a razor's edge. Last she checked, there was a bit of distaste for dragons in Elibe - something about a small racial disagreement a millennium ago that had worked out wonderfully for both sides - and dragons these days were generally wise to hide their nature if they had any interest in the long lives that were their birthright. So either tall dark and scaly already knew she was a dragon - in which case this whole song and dance was completely pointless - or he was certifiably insane and she should probably be running. Or he assumed she was a human and was just planning to kill and eat her instead of letting her leave and didn't see any point in hiding his nature i the meantime.
...Her mind went to some pretty dark places when left unattended.
Nayru smiled a little awkwardly as the other dragon - Marcus - introduced himself, not entirely sure how to respond, as was ever her wont. Hundreds of years of interacting with people and she still acted like a lovestruck teenager on a regular basis. There was probably some sort of irony in that, but she didn't find it especially funny. "The pleasure is mine, Marcus. Just... Nayru is fine."
Another thing that never got easier. Nayru wanted to be proud of her surname - she was - but she knew she could never deserve Erim's gift to her, and so she had to hide it in shameful respect for her mentor. Who would want to be associated with a wandering monster, after all? Deep down, she always wished she could use it with her head held high, as she once had, but the events of a mere few years ago, not to mention her countless crimes before it, were an omnipresent reminder of how little she deserved that title. The blissful ignorance of childhood was something she missed even now.
Whatever the case might be, at least she was on track for having a rather interesting day. It had been ages since she ran into a dragon, much less one interested in casual conversation, and she could not very well ignore it. "Birds of a feather, after all," the female dragon intoned with a mysterious smile. Of course that was a really bad saying - they were dragons, not birds, and dragons usually didn't have feathers, though sometimes they did, and she had fur which wasn't exactly - anyways. "If you would have me, I would be grateful. I could stand to relax for a time."
Yeah, yeah she really could.
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Marcus
Manakete
Dragon Reborn
Hell and back is a long way to go, but my journey's only begun.
Posts: 176
Profession: Wanderer
Affinity: Dark
Dragon Element: Lightning
Profile: Marcus
OoC Alias: Marc
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Post by Marcus on Jan 20, 2015 0:55:56 GMT -6
Marcus broke out in a big toothy grin. It had been a while since anyone had entered his grove, but he honestly couldn't remember is he had ever had anyone inside of his cottage. He never really got the chance. Nayru was probably the first person to have not run screaming from the mere sight of him, which was equal parts exciting and concerning. On one hand, she seemed like a nice enough girl, if a bit out there, and he was grateful for any company he could get. On the other hand, she had been relatively unfazed by his monstrous appearance and that could mean one of several things. Perhaps she had experience with dragons before, and this sight was commonplace to her. Or maybe she was a being of great power and knew that she could handle whatever power that Marcus possessed. Then, of course, there was always the possibility that Nayru was, in fact, a dragon herself. It had been many years since he had any contact with another dragon and he honestly had no idea what clues he should look for to identify her as a dragon. Regardless, she had offered him some company for a while, and he would be remiss to refuse.
"I'd be happy to have you," Marcus replied, turning towards his homely cottage. He folded his wings together as he opened the old oak front door and entered the rather cluttered main room. Originally, the cottage had belonged to some sort of herbalist and as such, there were all sorts of dried herbs and flowers scattered across the room. A large table sat in the middle of the room, covered in various map and dusty tomes. Against the back wall there was a cozy furnace, atop which sat a worn kettle. It was one of the few possessions that Marcus actually owned and hadn't been in the house when he had found it. When he had traveled with the caravan that had rescued him from the desert, they had given him plenty of tea to drink and he had grown rather accustom to drinking it. So when he had stumbled onto the cottage, abandoned as it was, he had been sure to purchase a kettle from the nearby village. It was the first thing he went to as he led Nayru into the cottage, checking it to see if it was full before moving to light a fire in the stove. Once the fire was going, there was little to do but wait until the water came to a boil. He turned back to face his guest and motioned towards the table. "Please, sit down. I'm sorry about the mess. I wasn't exactly expecting company today."
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jan 20, 2015 6:15:55 GMT -6
Well, at least one of them was happy.
Well. It wasn't like she WASN'T happy. Marcus seemed almost blithely happy, though, as if there was nothing to be concerned about, nothing to think about, just a normal guy happy for some company. It was almost suspicious, though the blonde man was disarmingly... what was the word? Innocent? Naive? Nayru wasn't exactly sure how to phrase it, but it certainly didn't feel like a trap; her body was ready to move before her mind caught on, carrying her through the doorway and into a surprisingly homey cottage.
She held back at the doorway for a moment, taking in the building - old habits died hard, and even if she was willing to trust Marcus, she didn't necessarily trust her surroundings - but there was really nothing all that alarming or worrisome about it; no blood-soaked carcasses, no mound of half-eaten puppy corpses, and no decorative toaster cozies made out of human flesh. It didn't particularly smell like a butcher's den, either. So... probably fine. Also, she probably needed to learn how to relax.
With that thought on her mind, Nayru quietly closed the door behind her, feeling the rough hew of the oak beneath her fingers for one lingering moment before turning her back to the exit and following Marcus further into the house, taking it in with an eye appraising more for style than for insanity. It all seemed very... staid. Not in a bad way, mind, but almost quaint; relaxed, well-used, enduring. She didn't recognize the vast majority of the herbs and grasses, but then it had never been a subject all that interesting to her. Erim had tried to teach her, lord knew, but she had not been the most... attentive... of students when it came to learning the medicinal arts.
A mistake, as it had turned out. One of many. It would have served her well during her travels, and she had been forced to learn a few of the more common ones as she went. The female dragon quirked a fondly reminiscent smile as she continued to move, running her fingers alongside one counter with even more flora she didn't recognize. When she spoke again, her voice was a bit quieter and more subdued. "Are you an herbalist? It's an impressive collection... I recognize but few of these."
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Marcus
Manakete
Dragon Reborn
Hell and back is a long way to go, but my journey's only begun.
Posts: 176
Profession: Wanderer
Affinity: Dark
Dragon Element: Lightning
Profile: Marcus
OoC Alias: Marc
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Post by Marcus on Jan 26, 2015 10:38:49 GMT -6
Leaving the kettle to boil, Marcus moved over to one of the side tables, upon which sat several jars. Each contained a different tea of his own creation. Ever since discovering the drink, the dragon had taken it upon himself to improve upon it in any way he could think of. So far, he had tried combining it with various herbs, nuts, and dried fruits that he found throughout the forest. Most of them had been rather distasteful, especially most of his nutty creations, but he had found great success with his combination of blueberries and mint leaves. He found it to be rather calming and would often make himself a cup of it after going on a hunt. It would also make for a good tea to have a conversation over, he reasoned. He lifted the rather full jar off of the table and brought it over to the kettle, scooping out generous portions of tea leaves and dumping them into the water. He liked his tea strong after all. With that, he again left the stove and took a seat at the table.
“Not professionally, no,” he replied to Nayru’s inquiry, “Much of this was here when I stumbled upon the cottage so many years ago. From what I could gather, the locals had thought its previous inhabitant a witch and had her seized and burned at the stake. An unpleasant set of affairs, I’m afraid. I’ve done my best to learn the trade and make use of some of this stuff, but many of then books have faded and been damaged with age, making them difficult to read.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair. It was a shame that he couldn’t make use of much of what the cottage had to offer. It held a veritable wealth of herbs, as well as various mushrooms, and he could only imagine the potential that they held. Still, he wasn’t about to start eating everything in sight to determine their use. That was a good way to end up dead.
“So, tell me,” Marcus continued, leaning in, “I know why you’re in this neck of the woods, but I can’t help find it odd that you’re still here. Most who learn of my true nature don’t stay long in my presence and those who do only do so that they might try to slay me. But you seem remarkably unfazed to be invited to tea with a dragon. So tell me, Nayru. What are you really?”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jan 27, 2015 4:59:00 GMT -6
"From witch to dragon... there is no small degree of irony in the results of their labours," Nayru returned with a quirk of the lips. If those villagers had any idea what they had wrought they would probably have just kept the 'witch' around. Not that there was any real likelihood of her having been a witch in the first place, of course, but superstition was in no small supply in backwards villages such as these.
Having completed her perfunctory investigation of the plants, the silver-haired dragon chose to join Marcus at his table, not entirely against the idea of relaxing a bit. Or at least that was the plan; Marcus showcased a complete lack of interest in the idea himself shortly after. At least that answered the question of whether or not dragons had magic butt-sniffing powers; something that in retrospect it seemed she had never actually thought about, but in her time in Arcadia, there had been no need to hide one's true nature - and the vast majority of dragons wore their wings in full sight, many with horns or other accoutrements as well, and even if they didn't, there was only so long you could live in a city without noticing someone had looked the exact same for 70 years and making the educated guess that they might be something other than human.
Nayru met Marcus's gaze, unflinching, but she her mind was racing trying to think of a good way to respond - this was the first time she had actually met a dragon outside of Arcadia and she did NOT want to bork it up. A tall order for her, perhaps, but one she would try to fulfill regardless. "...I have not seen a dragon in over two centuries. Is it so odd I might want to investigate an unknown but familiar scent of ozone?" She smiled, genuinely. "...And thank you for answering the question of whether or not one dragon can magically recognize another. It never occurred to me when I lived in Arcadia, and I have not had the opportunity to test it until now."
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Marcus
Manakete
Dragon Reborn
Hell and back is a long way to go, but my journey's only begun.
Posts: 176
Profession: Wanderer
Affinity: Dark
Dragon Element: Lightning
Profile: Marcus
OoC Alias: Marc
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Post by Marcus on Jan 29, 2015 15:40:29 GMT -6
For several long, tense moments, Marcus held Nayru’s gaze, doing his best to hold a serious and concerned look on his face. His excitement, however, eventually overcame him. He burst into joyous laughter and sat back in his chair, relaxing once more. “I knew it!” he shouted giddily, “I just knew it!” Needless to say, he was thrilled. It had been decades since Marcus had encountered another dragon. In fact, he probably hadn’t come in contact with one since his fateful flight from Arcadia. The fact of the matter was that there simply weren’t a lot of dragons wandering around Elibe these days. He had thought he was the only one, but clearly, he was wrong. “Er, that is to say I didn’t know you were a dragon, but I knew you were something powerful. Hell, I think I even sensed you before you entered the clearing. There was a certain energy to the air this morning. I assume that was you. Of course, I couldn’t be quite sure if you were a dragon or just a very powerful mage. I meet those every so often when I’m out traveling the world. Impressive folk, if you ask me. They’re about as close to being like us as the humans get, really. Of course, they lack this,” he added, running his hand over the green dragonstone that dangled from a chain around his neck.
“But that’s beside the point. Please, tell me a bit about yourself,” he inquired with a warm smile. He was truly interested to hear of another dragon’s tales. He knew what he often did while adventuring, but, like humans, each dragon varied wildly. Nayru’s fascinations could be wildly different from that of his own. “Have you been in Elibe long? Or did you stay in Arcadia? What’s it like these days? Has it changed much? I’ll bet it hasn’t. That’s just like those stuffy old dragons to never change.”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jan 29, 2015 16:22:40 GMT -6
Nayru's lips twisted, quirked into a smile of her own despite her obvious reticence at showing it, a bit of immaturity and genuine emotional expression clawing its way through the mask of her practiced act. She... couldn't be as openly happy about it as Marcus, the events of ten years past still vividly etched into her mind as a reminder of what happened when she lost control of her emotions, but the light in her eyes spoke of the truth more eloquently than she could utter it.
Marcus, on the other hand, had no issue acting like a teenager at his coming of age party. Not that she was judging. "A magic user was my first thought as well... I sensed the presence of magic and tasted the lightning in a clear sky, and I had did not dare to hope for more." If anything, she had assumed that it was a mad sage preparing to obliterate the village in a rain of lightning strikes; Nayru was more than happy to have been proven entirely wrong on that subject.
She had experienced few run-ins with mages over the years, masters of anima and shadow having little to do with random bakers, but they did hold great power... enough that she did not truly know what they were capable of. Hence the staying away part. "Athos himself being my first introduction to mortal magic users, I have a healthy respect for their potential capabilities as well."
While she didn't mind answering most of his questions, the subject of Arcadia was a somewhat difficult subject; even centuries later, she was still consumed by guilt over the business with Erim. Her mood dampened a bit, she responded nonetheless. "I... left Arcadia a few centuries ago, but it had not changed much over the... one hundred and fifty or so years I spent there, and I doubt it has been altered in the interim. Had it collapsed in on itself, I am quite certain I would have heard of it in my travels - the discovery of dragons would have had a great effect on the world."
Funny how Arcadia served both to protect the last remnants of dragon-human peace... and also hold it away from the continent as a whole. Then again, it probably wasn't possible on the continent as a whole anymore, so who was she to judge? But it did seem unlikely that anyone would even be able to try it so long as Arcadia's secrecy was paramount. "As for me, I simply wander the world, learning what I can of it. Exploring ruins, deciphering prophecies and history; learning to dance, bake, and farm; seeing the sights of the continent. Elibe may no longer know the gleaming walls of Arcadia Prime nor the majesty of long-defunct draconic kingdoms, but there is yet great natural beauty to be found lurking in the untamed frontiers."
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Marcus
Manakete
Dragon Reborn
Hell and back is a long way to go, but my journey's only begun.
Posts: 176
Profession: Wanderer
Affinity: Dark
Dragon Element: Lightning
Profile: Marcus
OoC Alias: Marc
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Post by Marcus on Jan 31, 2015 21:57:59 GMT -6
Marcus let out a heavy sigh. He had always assumed that Aracadia was very much the same as it had always been, but some small part of him had hoped that something would have changed. Not that he remembered a whole lot about his birthplace. He hadn’t had many friends and the ones he had, he often only encountered when they were brought to his family’s dwelling. He had also been too young to venture far and he hadn’t been a very curious youth, mostly due to his father’s restrictive and controlling nature. It was something Hassan had been quick to encourage once he had fled the desert. “I’m sure it’d be different to me,” Marcus replied, “Though, it’s been a great many years since I left. It might even have been five hundred now. I honestly couldn’t say. I stopped counting a while ago.”
“You and I have a lot in common,” he continued, “I myself enjoy seeing the world, though I don’t leave my cottage as often as I could. Still, I like to visit new places, especially when I can find something to bring back with me. The other room is filled with them,” he added, motioning towards the door the led to the cottage’s only other room. “I’ve even got a wyvern skull in there. Scaly lizard mistook for one of his females. Tried to mate with me. I didn’t take kindly to it.” He trailed off with an embarrassed chuckle. The story was funny now, but in the moment it had been quite emasculating.
Marcus opened his mouth to continue, but something Nayru had said gave him pause. She had mentioned something about Arcadia Prime and draconic kingdoms. These were words that he had no prior knowledge of, yet he felt something deep inside of him that told him he should. “It is... embarrassing to admit, but I’ve never heard of any draconic kingdoms or of this Arcadia Prime. I was very young when I came to Elibe, so I never really had much of a chance to learn much history.”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Feb 1, 2015 14:17:14 GMT -6
"Five hundred?" Nayru arched an eyebrow, not particularly openly surprised but betraying a bit of it. If he had LEFT it that long ago, he must be older than her... though his comment about Arcadia at the end convinced her he must not be a Scouring survivor. So... somewhere in the 700-900 range? It would have been nice to meet someone younger than her for once, but that was sort of an immature thing to say, and she didn't want to look THAT much like a kid. Even if it was, technically, not too far from true.
Still... the timing was sort of amusing. "If so, you left... right around the time I was-I arrived," she corrected her wording to be slightly more accurate. Since Erim had found her rather than bearing her and all. "You hardly look older than me, but I suppose that is the blessing and curse entwined of our aging process... one can never tell at a glance. My mentor was countless thousands of years old, and yet she barely looked the part of middle-aged woman." It still felt a liiiiiittle like blasphemy to word it like that, but it was an accurate description of Erim and all, so she figured it was more or less legal.
Marcus's story about the wyvern was... a little stomach-churning. Almost as bad as those humans that bred with horses. "...I suppose I am fortunate that wyverns tend to avoid me. I am not sure how I would, er, handle that situation." Outside of exorbitant amounts of violence, anyways, but that was a given. "As for Arcadia Prime... I have heard naught but stories, but it was apparently a city built entirely of gold, somewhere in what is modern-day Lycia, and an icon of dragon supremacy... or something of the sort. I have never heard if it in human mythology, but supposedly it was lost to the legendary weapons and erased from the world without a trace."
Nayru shrugged. She didn't know how much she believed in a mythical city of which there was no proof, but who knew what all had truly been lost to the ages? "Supposedly it was the inspiration for the Arcadia the two of us know, but there is so little evidence of its existence that I can only wonder if it was not a fevered dream. Or perhaps it did exist, and the legendary weapons actually do... or did... have the power to erase objects - concepts - from reality? For how much was lost from before the Scouring, only those who lived through it may truly know, and I have found precious few of those to yet live, and even fewer willing to discuss it. Arcadia Prime could be a symbol of what they lost rather than reality, an imaginary representation of a reality that was gilded in blood rather than gold."
...Well that got depressing fast. As she tended to do. "If it was real, it must have been quite expensive to build - and I'm not entirely certain of the use of one of the softest metals in construction. Perhaps there was a great deal of magic involved?" The lady dragon smiled in guarded amusement. It was perhaps making light of a terrible loss, but never having been there herself she had no special attachment to it.
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