Well, she’d done it this time.

A dragon naturally inclined to adventure and acts of rashness, Kuwari had decided several days ago to take off from her parents’ nest and go… well, she didn’t really know where. Now she realized that having a destination probably would have been a good idea. However, because she did not have one and refused to go back and admit defeat, the young red opted to circle over one of many mountain lakes and try her claw at fishing. Food was also something she hadn’t really considered. While she certainly knew how to hunt, she had no real talent for it because she lacked the patience to stalk properly. Consequently, she had managed to pick off a rather stupid sheep three days ago and that was about it.

The first dive into the lake produced absolutely nothing except a massive splash and the beating of a hundred wings as she scared every single waterfowl off this end of the lake. After poking about underwater and flailing around after fish for quite some time (and scaring away all of the fish she found without catching any), Kuwari wound her way through the water back to shore. Birds made it look so easy. All they had to do was dive in, and almost without fail they came up with something to eat. The red had to wonder what exactly was wrong with her technique. Honestly the answer to her question was ‘everything,’ but because this did not occur to her, she settled on a large warm rock by the lakeshore, spread her wings to dry, and contemplated what she could possibly be doing wrong.

Spirals and spirals and spirals and... dizzying colors. Siphran opened his eyes, watching as the land and sky chased each other in blurred circles. His wings caught the wind, tail swinging behind him, to any observer, he would seem a blue spinning blur, darting across the sky. Sometimes, he could just get so carried away, enjoying the feeling of the wind tugging at his wingtips, pushing him up and pulling him down, a friendly hand at times, a malevolent hammer at others. But it was his, and his alone. For now.

Steadying himself, the blue dragon surveyed the expanse. The sky was clear, no occupants to behold save for a few birds in the distance. The ground, well he only afforded it a passing glance, nothing down there. Nothing worth seeing anyway. It was a place of the land bound creatures, mud, and dirt. An okay place, but it held nothing to his kingdom of cloud and sun. From his now stable perch in the sky, he noticed movement in the distance. Far to be sure, but his keen eyes saw a dark dot in the distance, plummeting towards the earth. Curiosity aroused, he angled in that direction. It was not a bird, it was too big, and this area was one infested by the two limbed, land bound flesh sacks, they could not fly.

As he neared, the lake appeared from behind the treetops. But no flying creature in sight. Curiosity not yet abated, he dove to the surface, skimming above the water while peering intently around. Still, he saw nothing. Siphran had failed to notice what lay behind him though, becoming distracted by peering at the sparkling water below him, and his reflection that it had captured.

This wasn't good, and Thalia knew it.

She was lost, in the woods, by herself, with no idea on which way the road or the nearest civilization was. She had no survival skills, and didn't know the lands outside the capitol at all. She'd been stowing away in the back of a trading caravan, intent to leave the awful streets of the city and hopefully arrive in the neighboring city, where there was a large church that helped the homeless, but she had no chance of arriving there on her own... So, she'd stowed away, and prayed she wouldn't be caught.

Unfortunately for the scrawny, dirty, white-haired girl, she had been. And the ownber of the caravan hadn't been too happy. He'd beaten her, blindfolded her, and then carried her in to the woods and left her. By the time she'd gotten the blindfold of fhe was gone, and she had no idea which way the road was... She was lost.

At least she'd found this enormous necklace, she thought. It was huge! She doubted it would fit even the angry Blacksmith's neck. She suspected the gold was solid as well, and while it was heavy, she'd likely get a pretty penny for it on the markets. Hopefully enough for a day or two of food, any way...

But man, she was thristy! She hadn't eaten or drank for two days, and she'd been planning on taking a little of the trader's dried foodstuffs, but he'd caught her before she had the chance, a day and a half from the capitol. Thalia was in the process of trying to find food or water when there was a large commotion above her. The girl gasped and covered her head, and relaxed when it was nothing but waterfowl scattering...

Wait, waterfowl! There was water nearby! Thalia had spent enough time trying to find scraps around the sluaghterhouses to have picked up a few things from the hunters. Waterfowl meant water, and Thalia made for it post haste.

The girl cried out happily whens he heard a chorus of quacks and other bird noises, rushing through the brush and scattering a few more birds. She rushed towards the water, her lips cracked and her tongue dry and-

And she stopped cold, stone still. There, across the water, were dragons.

Two of them.

Despite her momentary break, Kuwari had no wish to spend the rest of the day being idle. She was ever the sort to seek adventure, not wait for it to come on by, but on this particular occasion adventure found her. To be precise, a dragon found her, zooming overhead from someplace behind her. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t recognize him. She had traveled from the volcanic regions to the west, home of the fire dragons, and he did not look like any fire dragon she had ever seen. Therefore he was intriguing, and because he would not know who she was, he was probably not a threat – in part because he was looking in totally the wrong direction.

He did seem to be very interested in something in the water, however. Curious, the red watched him for a few moments, sodden wings fluttering and scattering droplets of water across the rock before a strange scent distracted her. Not having grown up with humanoids, their scent was half-known but not familiar to her, and it brought her to her feet, tail swinging slowly back and forth behind her as she got her bearings. Shame her wings were wet – she might be able to fly, but it would be a clumsy affair, and the human was far enough away that walking was a bother.

While tempted to socialize, the red was much more interested in an easy meal. Her parents, when she was a hatchling, had taught her a bit about humans and their relatives, and while they could be a dangerous enemy, she had heard that the little ones were their version of hatchlings. That didn’t bother her much – a snack was a snack. Kuwari slipped off the rock and slid underwater, noticing that the human was looking in her direction but confident that she could submerge herself deeply enough that the ripples wouldn’t be noticeable. And this was exactly what she did: she slipped down to the lakebed and swam at full speed in the direction she had last noticed the human, using her wings for extra speed underwater.

Moments later she exploded out of the water again, sending up a huge spray of droplets and releasing a bellowing roar intended to shock her prey into inaction. Hopefully her target was still standing in the right place, though – she hadn’t exactly taken the time to look. Once she caught her snack, she would consider greeting the other dragon – but she was hungry, and this human looked tasty!

Admiring the reflection, he cocked his head, then playfully struck the surface of the water with his legs before banking away, wingtip running along the surface and throwing up a spray. As he turned around he noticed several new scents. Maybe they were related? All he knew was that it smelled faintly of those bumbling ground creatures, humans, and one of dragon. Who? Did he know them?

Siphran's visual search brought up no dragon, but a solitary human figure by the lake side. Maybe the human would know where the other dragon was? If not, maybe he could at least have a good conversation for a few moments. He zeroed in on the lake side, still skimming above the surface of the water.

As he neared the bank, he drew up short and did a double take as a red dragon burst from the water at the human. From this angle it was hard to tell, but it certainly wasnt a happy "Nice to see you" posture. Something was going to go down if he didn't do something quick. He had no allegiance to humans in general, but at least give it a chance to gauge whether they were good company or not before attacking.

The blue tilted back into a steep ascent, trading speed for altitude. He would need to act fast. Twirling around, he sped back down towards the ground at an alarming rate, pulling up at the last moment, managing to skid in front of the red, seperating it from the small looking meat sack behind him. "Well HEY there!"

Thalia was like a dear in the headlights. Two dragons were coming towards her, one soaring overhead and hte other slinking through the water. She couldn't think, she could barely breathe. Her legs just refused to respond. She managed a tiny step back when the red dragon erupted from the water, charging her. She scream and finally remembered how her legs worked, stumbling back... And promptly falling on her ass.

She knew she was dead. There was no avoiding it. Life was cruel and short, as she had come to learn. Seemed hers was at an end before it really began... Or so she thought. There was a rush of wind, and a loud, deep voice. Thalia stayed cowered were she was, afraid movement would mean death.

Kuwari could almost taste the human, so close was she to her goal. She burst out of the water with jaws wide open, intending to grab the morsel and kill it instantly... at least until the blue dragon skidded down in front of her with a loud and too-enthusiastic greeting. Startled, the red was forced to backwing clumsily, claws scrabbling wildly on the shore and tail slashing through the water in an effort to catch her balance before she managed to get her forelegs back on the ground. ”What are you doing!?” the red demanded, scales puffing up in frustration. Even around the scent of the other dragon she could still smell the human, and the sharp stench of fear radiating from it.

And… gold? Was that gold she smelled? Nostrils quivering, Kuwari lifted her muzzle and drew in a deep breath. Yes, the human was carrying treasure! Why, then, had the blue protected it?

Probably she would have just shoved on past the other dragon if he hadn’t been far larger, but as it was the half-grown fire dragon tried to skitter around him, lowering her horns on the off chance he tried to catch her on the back of the neck. Her wings half-extended to lend her balance, although water still dripped from the long bones, and she fired a golden glare at the other dragon. ”That’s my meal! Move.” Who protected humans, anyway? They were only good for food and fighting, as far as she knew. And this one smelled delicious – young and tender, and carrying gold.

Siphran leaned back, making an appraisal of the dragon in front of him. After a moment of deliberation, he shook his head, moving to again block the path of the hungry red. "That's not a meal, its a person! A little, smelly person, but you don't just EAT people. Not at first!" He performed a short two step, prancing almost with delight. Two people to converse with! Today was going swell. He looked over his shoulder at the cowering bundle, fear radiated from her. He shrugged and looked back at the red.

"If you just EAT the person, then you can't find out where they came from? What if they have more food, or gold? Or if they're a pleasant person?" He pondered the question with a contemplative look, "No, its no good. Then you lose out on opportunities." He answered himself. The blue shook his head, then watched the red closely for a reaction. This new dragon was still small, smaller than he. Aggressive though, and hungry of course. Hopefully not young and hot headed enough to get his point. He tried to smile convincingly, shuffling his feet.

Thalia didn't know why he was helping her, but she silently thanked the blue dragon. She was being given a very valuable chance to escape, and she wasn't about to was it. While the red dragon was distracted with the blue, she rolled to her knees, stood, and bolted for the tre-Eep! Thalia let out a cry and fell forward, her leg caught on the long, gold chain that held the pendant around her neck. She threw her arms out to catch herself, and her leg yanked to the side, and-

"AAAH!" Thalia screamed, grabbing her leg. It was bent at an angle that made her stomach lurch, and pain pulsed through it with the beating of her heart. She was so caught up with her broken leg she forgot that there were two dragons, one of them hungry for her flesh, only a few yards away.

Too used to receiving lectures from her parents – ”no, Kuwari, you can’t do that!” – the young red tuned out most of what the other dragon said, and snorted at the morality put before her by the blue. As if she cared about the personalities of her meals! The idea of more gold was appealing, though… although the human looked rather small and dirty and not in possession of a great deal of wealth. She didn’t reek of gold, so she couldn’t have had that much.

”People are meals,” she reasoned simply, lowering her head still further so she could lean out and catch another glimpse of the human. Perhaps she would have pointed out that the human was trying to get away – since this was indeed the truth – but the scream announced that there was no chance of that happening. Instantly the red’s pupils narrowed to predatory slits, and she growled, staring past the blue as her wings slowly started to unfurl. ”Look, it broke something. How convenient.”

Certainly something seemed to be broken, because the human was clutching her leg and shrieking and generally appearing fairly pathetic. Best to put it out of its misery, surely – she wouldn’t want something to suffer on her account. And if one or the other of the dragons – preferably the red one – were to come out of this unpleasant endeavour with a golden trinket, that was just a fringe benefit, of course. Knowing that the blue would probably just block her again if she tried to get by, Kuwari sat back on her haunches with a snort and looked up at the other dragon, swishing her tail through the water. ”Maybe we should put it out of its misery. You can have the gold if you’ll let me eat it. Or I can take the gold and find a snack somewhere else.”