@PlatinumSkinkWith a bit more damage done to her and a whole lot of Bonewalkers broken, Kara felt she had shaken off a bit of the rust she had accumulated over the years.
Level Up!
Kara: Level+1, HP+1, STR+1, RES+1
no, with the exception of level these numbers mean nothing, i just felt like making up growth rates and then rolling
you rolled horribly on basically all but resistance, hah
The Bonewalkers and Mogalls eliminated, Kara felt the energy in the area dissipating, it seemed that was it for now. The origin of that energy was impossible to tell, it had seemingly just gathered in her immediate area and caused monsters to converge.
It was only them, now.
@Crimson RavenLevel Up!
Kara: Level+1, HP+1, STR+1, RES+1
"All that did was make me hungrier..."
It didn't take long for the wyvern and rider pair touched down nearby. Kara caught the thrown vulnerary with a swift snatch but then reversed the motion, throwing it back.
"I've got my own." She said shortly.
As if to prove it, she pulled out one from a pocket and uncorked it. Tossing it back, she drained the whole bottle in a big gulp, wrinkling her nose at the bitter taste. She recorked the now empty bottle and tucked it away. She then turned her attention fully to the man and wyvern in front of her. She regarded them in silence for a long moment, her expression guarded and unreadable. Finally, she spoke.
"Well. You could have done better." She wasn't looking him, rather, she seemed to be addressing his wyvern.
"Your name?""Amboli, I see. And this one?" She pointed at Servus with her scaled hand.
"Servus? He doesn't look like much." She glared at Servus, crossing her arms. Her tail lashed behind her, indicative of her anger.
"Human you have wasted your time and risked dear Amboli's life for nothing. Your help was neither needed nor is it appreciated. In fact, you nearly got the pair of you roasted after that stunt you pulled. If I had been a second faster, or you a second slower, the both of you would be have been on the receiving end of dragonfire. You wouldn't have been a great loss, but Amboli is of a rare specices and would be sorely missed." Regardless of his apparent kindness, Kara wasn't going to trust this human yet. Although the fact that a wyvern consented to be his partner and put up with him did speak in his favor.
In her option, wyverns and pegusi were very good judges of character.
@Lmpkio
SERVUS
Servus nearly drops the very vulnerary, for he didn't expect to have the kind gesture denied and thrown back at him so suddenly. He's taken back by this gesture, although he understood she simply will drink her own that she happens to have on her. His blank eyes stare bluntly in Kara's direction for a moment before he shakes out of the trance and puts back his bottle. As soon as he did, he looks at the silent manakete and makes an effort to please her. Perhaps this can warm her cold temperament a bit.
"I, uh..." the rider sighs briefly glancing down at the ground before looking back at her,
"I must say, you've done a good job taking care of those monsters. Clearly, I've had no doubt that we - uh, I mean, you - would've come out on top.""Well. You could have done better." Servus lightly winced at this response as he gave a more sullen frown. Then again, he's talking to a manakete, a person who can literally turn into a bloody dragon. He may ride a wyvern, a cousin species to the dragons, but even then that pales compared to the figure he stands before. However he notices that she isn't talking to him, but rather Ambolli, who responds with a flare of her nostrils while slowly shaking her head side to side. She didn't take too kindly to her initial response.
"Your name?"The wyvern gave a few chatters of her mouth as she exhales, her teeth glistening in the sunlight above.
"Amboli, I see. And this one?"The manakete refers to Ambolli's rider, whom he himself announces before his mount can.
"Servus." he bluntly replies before attempting to ask another question,
"And yo~""Servus? He doesn't look like much." the manakete replies while still looking at the wyvern.
Servus paused as he looks at the woman with a hint of displeasure. He takes some offense to that statement.
"I beg your pardon?" he asks impulsively but dares not to ask anything more.
She then proceeds to lecture him about the dangers that he placed her wyvern in during the battle, especially regarding the first mogall they eliminated. If they had messed up upon that initial attack, or had been a second too later or a second too early, they would've been blasted by the dragon lady's fireball. According to her, Servus wouldn't be missed, but his unique mount would be mourned. This entire lecture continues to sour Servus' mood even further, his face contorting into a frown of utter discontent. He's virtually boiling at this point, his temper already hotter than the sandy deserts of Jehenna itself. It wasn't even his idea in the first place! As he's about to let loose his temper however, Ambolli interrupts by hissing at the dragon lady. She states that it was her idea in the first place and that she chose to do it on her own, without any influence of her rider, all for the sake of saving her "cousin". She even seemed to mention that Servus didn't even want her to go at first, but she did so anyways for knew what she was doing.
Servus paused respectfully to listen to Ambolli's entire explantation, slowly feeling the pressure melt from his chest as his mount rubs her nose on his head. When she finished, he looks back at the manakete with a more relaxed look.
"See? I always try to protect my precious Amboli from unnecessary harm." he says to the dragon lady in a more calm voice,
"It's just that she often wants to throw herself towards the enemy I don't want her to face. I think it's utter suicide to~!"Amboli clamps her mouth close to Servus' face with a light hiss, a gesture for him to be silent. In the matters regarding dragons and dragonfolk, human opinion always comes second.
"Can I... just get your name at least?" the rider says hesitantly to the manakete before he ceases any further interruption.
@Crimson RavenWell at least he had the good sense to do as his Wyvern says.
Her irritation died down, Ambroboli’s explaination satisfying her. She might as well humour the human and quit being difficult.
”All right. I am Kara,” She said, drawing herself up and spreading her impressive wings.
“A manakete and traveler of lands far and wide.” She was going to say something else but she stopped. She thought she heard something. She held up a hand to forstall more conversation. The memory of the suddenly defeated bonewalker sprung to mind.
She narrowed her eyes and scanned the bushes. Was that a flash of color? A rustle of leaves against the wind?
”You there! In the trees!” She barked.
“Come out beneath the sun and the sky!”She was feeling completely drained from having used her dragonstone so much, but nevertheless she put on a tough face and readied the slightly-larger-then-a-fist-sized stone in her hand, just in case this mysterious figure turned out to be another enemy.
@PlatinumSkink‘Wah!’There was a noise of alarm as the person behind the trees was called out to, and a young man in a traveller’s clothes, too lightly armored and muscles too slim to be intended to be in the thick of combat, but he clearly had a knack for moving silently and relatively unseen, except the red of his current outfit had given him away. He currently held his hands in the air in gesture of meaning no harm, though there were numerous knives and the sword he used earlier tied to his clothes. Different parts of his attire come from Grado, Jehanna and Renais. There were numerous butterflies sitting on him here and there, for some reason.
‘I’m sorry! D-don’t eat me! I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be very tasty, a-and I’m pretty sure I’m way too unworthy for your mighty fiery breath or powerful crushing claws or jaws or…’He paused his panicked ranting, looking over Kara a bit before changing tactics.
‘Er, don’t mind me! I’m Hevel, just a recently homeless wanderer passing by, intending to help! Now, turned out it wasn’t really needed, what with you turning into an epic dragon and gallant knight on mighty steed coming to assist and all, but I had the best of intentions at heart! So, uh, we’re cool, right?’ he instead asked, an unsure smile on his lips and hands still raised.
There he stood, looking somewhat scared of the two.
‘Yeah, that should do. It isn’t as if I had any malice in my intentions this time, it should be perfectly forgivable. I’m kinda confident. That said, I don’t know how dragons think. I probably should be ready to bolt, just in case.’
@LmpkioSERVUS
Kara wasn't the only one to have taken notice of the traveler in the bushes, as Ambolli had already picked up its scent way earlier during the battle. She begins growling at the direction, baring her teeth as she prepares to maul whoever is in the bushes. Servus has to struggle a bit just to calm her down, shushing the wyvern and rubbing her neck.
"Ceaaaaaaase." soothed the rider as he too looks on to see the figure emerge out of the foliage.
The figure was a thin scrawny young boy, with white hair, amber eyes, and wears simple clothes. His cowardly-nature looked rather pathetic to Servus, but began to realize that he might've been the person who killed that one skeleton during the fight. After all, he too saw the entire event as well. But there's something else that catches the rider's eye. Numerous butterflies, all in different styles and colors, rly around or sit situated on the boy. Even Ambolli seems curious, as she snaps to catch one of the butterflies that are flying too close to her. He eyes the boy cautiously with a stern glare before speaking.
"Ya took out one of those bonies earlier, yeah?" Servus asks for confirmation,
"Saw ya lob one into pieces from behind a bush. That takes greeeeeeeat balls kid, well done."He's being rather sarcastic there, but he couldn't calm him a full-blown coward. I mean, he pretty much is, but he wasn't actually useless. Slight props to him. Then Servus asks the obvious question.
"And uh..." he hesitates slightly before finishing,
"That's 'lotta butterflies ya got there. Tryna' catch them all or are you secretly some kinda flower?"@Crimson RavenKara relaxed. Not an enemy, just another human. She shook her head and put away her dragonstone. Now that the monsters were gone, she needed to keep moving. These three here were no concern of hers, she had no interest in talking with them with more pressing matters at hand. Her gazed drifted in the direction of Grado, where that eerie, almost familiar, energy was emanating from. She thought she could just see the tops of the city's towers in the distance.
But all the smoke made it hard to tell.
"And uh... That's 'lotta butterflies ya got there. Tryna' catch them all or are you secretly some kinda flower?"Kara made a small noise of disgust at the sheer vapid stupidity of what Servus just said.
"I'd love to stay and chat," She interrupted dryly,
"But I don't have time for this. Be on you way." The last part was noticeably more politely spoken yet carried an unmistakable tone of command. She turned and began walking in the direction of Grado, her wings folded on her back and her tail swaying in time with her footsteps.
Privatly, she cursed the monsters. Thanks to them, she was too worn out to fly the rest of the way, not to menton her dragonstone was drained. She would have to walk, and take her time doing it. There was still the matter of the possiblility that those monsters had sent after her specifically, implying that someone wanted her dead. She frowned at that. Could it be because of her journey or because she was a manakete? If the former, there was no reason to be worried. If it was the latter, then her fellow manaketes in the forest could be in danger too and not all of them were the fighter she was. Still more questions needled her. Who could command and summon monsters like that? Was it even related to her journey? It was possible that she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But those archers... She shivered and touched her healing wound. Were the appearance of no less than three archers coincidence?
Too many questions and no answers. She gave up trying to ponder them out. Idle speculation would get her nowhere; she would have to find them for herself.
@PlatinumSkinkHevel looked towards Servus as he spoke to him, looking a bit wide-eyed as the mention of the destruction of the one Bonewalker. At Servus completion of the line… Hevel broke into a little awkward smile.
‘Haha, yeah, that was me.’‘Heh, right. The guy who looks like he could take on two Draco Zombies before breakfast calls me brave. Sure, I’ll take it.’Then Servus asked about the butterflies. Hevel blinked twice looking like he didn’t understand, then he looked around him and seemed to notice the butterflies for the absolutely first time.
‘Ah.’ He waved his right arm to ward off butterflies on his right side.
‘Um.’ Still looking awkward, he made a similar wave on the left side.
‘Please, don’t mind those,’ he requested, running a hand through his hair to make the one on his head fly. He then resumed the position of holding hands up in a non-threatening gesture, and the butterflies resettled on him without further ado.
Kara then said her part and turned to leave. Hevel turned to look at her in slight surprise, but stood still for now. He’s unlikely to interrupt with anything if Servus engaged in conversation or what not unless addressed.
@LmpkioSERVUS
Servus looked at the boy weirdly as he attempted to wave his arms in order to get the butterflies off him, only for them to land on him once he rests. At the same time he can also hear the manakete grunt in disgust, but didn't pay too much attention to it.
"This is some weird kid..." the rider thought to himself.
But before he can ask another question, Kara suddenly began to take her leave. Just like that? No thank you or any form of appreciation that he helped her? I mean, Servus did get that lecture, but it's only polite for someone to acknowledge someone's help, even if it was a little unwanted. He turns to call towards the manakete.
"Oi! Hold up!" he called to her,
"If ya're not going to give a thank you or whatever, can ya at least tell me where ya going or what ya doing around these parts at least?"He'd pause before quickly realizing the possible implications of what she can interpret his statement as.
"O-Of course, I'm not gonna follow ya or anything - hell if I do, ya might as well flame me alive or somethin'." he adds quickly to his response.
@Crimson RavenKara kept walking but turned and regarded Servus with a mildly amused expression. He was afraid of her wrath. Good.
“If you must know, I’m headed to Grado.” She glanced at the rising smoke in the distance.
“Or what will be left of it. However, why I am going there is my business.” And would probably sound mad if I even tried to explain it. She silently added. That insistant pull, that powerful energy, equal parts attaction and revulsion, familar and mysterious, drove her steps. She had to go. She couldn’t expain why.
The idea that this wyvern rider, and to a lesser extent, the thief would be good protection while her dragonstone was recharging did occur to her. But she had long since done well on her own, why would she need help now?
Then again, there was that mysterious force. If it summoned more monsters than before, or if it could send more in rapid waves before she could rest, even she might struggle. Even if she encountered roving monsters or bandits now she would be nearly defenseless. Just walking was taking determination and willpower. She planned to rest for awhile once she got some distance between her and the ambush site.
But a human for company? Two humans even? The wyvern wouldn’t be so bad at least.
All that was assuming they were even going in the same direction.
She stopped walking suddenly.
“I think the same could be asked of you. What are you doing in these lands?” She asked of the wyvern rider. Simultaneously, she lazily lifted an arm and beckoned the thief to join them. Perhaps she had been a bit hasty. She would decide what to do with them after hearing more of their story.
If she tired of them she could always eat them she jokingly suggested to herself.
@LmpkioSERVUS
Servus pauses when Kara mentioned the chilling words regarding Grado.
"W-Waddya do ya mean, what's left of~?" he mutters confusingly before looking in her direction.
"Oh... oh no."And there he sees it. The smoke bellowing from the direction of that very kingdom. He knows all too well of what this means. Jehenna's forces had already begun their invasion, which has begun much earlier then he realized. He believed he had at least an hour or so before he had to flee the kingdom, yet after an hour out on the field there they are now. But why is Kara going there in the hour of strife? She couldn't be simply wanting to help Grado out for its own good, right? No, there's something more to it, but he both doesn't know or is told by the dragon lady herself.
But regarding Jehenna, Servus had no reason to stay and fight them - his own race as a matter of fact - for he and his wyvern would be mercilessly hunted down by them as a traitor if he was seen. That was a past he wanted to bury... and now it has come back to haunt him. He wants to flee, or at the very least, quickly get to his hut and collect his stuff. Yet Kara also asks for what he was doing out here.
"I... uh..." he blubbers slightly, as if he's still shocked by the events unfolding.
His attire, of course, looks much like he's one of Jehenna's own and can fool anyone who hasn't seen him. But to state his true intentions in the presence of an ancient manakete will be unwise. To be called a coward by a dragon will be utterly humiliating to say the least. Hell, it even looks as if she expects him and the thief to come with her too. It looks like he's going to have to do the one thing he resented in doing...
"Well I was just... findin' monsters to practice my combat skills with." he blurts the first excuse that comes to mind,
"However, now that there's an invasion force coming to raid Grado, I'ma also be heading back to hold em' back."Servus reaches out to grab Hevel's arm as he attempts to plant him on Amboli.
"Oi, you." he orders bluntly,
"Ya're coming with us, whether ya like it or not."The wyvern screeches loudly while stretching her wings as the rider grabs ahold of the reins.
"Kara, hop on." he calls to the manakete,
"Unless yer wings can still fly yaself there."Amboli immediately clatters her teeth at his rider for offering Kara a ride despite her being her cousin. This wasn't going to be fun carrying three people back to Grado.
@Crimson RavenKara balked at his gung-ho attitude.
“Woah, I never said we were— nrgh.” She broke off and looked toward Grado, thinking quickly.
Flying would be faster, and this way she could rest at the same time. She was too tired to fly, much less keep up on her own
But flying on someone wasn’t the same as flying yourself. Could Ambroli handle three people?
She asked the wyvern as much, who responded confidently affirmative. Like wyvern, like master she supposed. Still, she hesitated. She chewed her bottom lip, her tail flicked and she shifted her wings on her back. Kara, usually so self confident and assured, was nervous about the idea of flying on the back of another creature of the sky.
“Fine, it will be faster this way.” She slowly approached Ambroli, not sure how to climb up. She finally stepped around the wyvern’s wings to her tail, and using a strap she unsteadily scaled Ambroli’s back.
Oh, winds, this is mad. A dragon riding another dragon?She sat as modestly as she could in a skirt. Such attire was comfortable and convenient when one had a tail, but it definitely wasn’t the best idea for flying. Oh dear. Amboli’s back wasn’t as hard as she feared, but it still wasn’t comfortable under her bum.
“Wha-what do I hold on to?” She asked, feeling like she could fall any second and looking wildly around.
Oh. Right. She hesitantly wrapped her mismatched arms around Hevel in front of her, who stiffed and blushed as he felt an unexpected, but pleasant, softness press into his back. Inexplicably, he still had several butterflies all over him, one of which lifted off and settled on Kara’s nose. She looked at it cross-eyed and tried not to sneeze. Kara carefully pressed her wings as hard as she could to her back and she wrapped her tail up into her lap. She was a secure as she could be.
“If I fall, no one will find your bodies.” She muttered darkly. It wasn’t the flying that made her nervous, she did that all the time. It was the insecure feeling, the feeling of being reliant on another that she didn’t like.
@PlatinumSkinkHevel looked more than satisfied simply listening to the conversation, standing there only the slightest wide-eyed looking over the two. When Kara waved to him to come over, he looked a bit surprised but scuffled over, the butterflies following along. If the question about what they were doing here was directed to both Servus and him, he failed to understand it. He didn’t react in any particular way at the smoke from the distant settlement… but he most certainly reacted when Servus decided the thief was to be taken along whether he liked it or not.
‘Waitwhat- I am? Whoa!’ Hevel’s eyes widened as he was grabbed and placed on-board Amboli, grabbing onto Servus from behind in sheer panic, the butterflies hanging on as well. While he did not speak up loudly, this time he was so close to Servus that he might overhear Hevel’s silent ramble.
‘You’re bringing me along, just like that!? Because I helped you once, I am now helping you against the whole might of Jehanna, or what!? What kind of logic is that!? You have no idea who I am or where I came from! How can you assume I will be willing to face armies and monsters beside you just because I-!’He quieted when Kara came close, eyes widening as he partly realized what would have to come next. She got on behind him, and asked where to hold on.
‘I, uh, suppose you could-’ Hevel began in a silent tone, but Kara came to her own conclusion and wrapped her arms around him. Hevel’s eyes widened, body tensed up, face a bit red. He did not move a muscle, as if afraid to disturb the entity pressed onto his back.
‘…’
‘…’
‘I’m okay with this.’
Hevel has joined the party!
“If I fall, no one will find your bodies.”‘I’m only partially okay with this.’
With that, the three were in place on Amboli’s back, and while travelling with three people on the back of a Wyvern was not recommended, at least two of the passengers were lighter than the average and was feasible for a not-too-long journey. South of them awaited Grado, smoking from Jehanna’s invasion, people deciding between retreating from the army or holing up in their homes. There would potentially be a danger of being located, as the army had scouts heading about.
Kara still felt two of the four earlier flares of demonic energy that remained, their origin unfamiliar to her. One of them was in Jehanna, the other far across the continent in Rausten. The two other flares she had felt, the weaker two, had faded. This much alike to how the one which had called the attack directly at her had faded. The meaning of these flares were up to her to guess the meaning of. But straight ahead, in Grado, the Fire Emblem remained, just as it had for so long, despite the invasion. … Or was it moving, just the slightest? It was hard to tell from this distance, but it kind of felt like it had moved a bit since the time she felt the flares emerge…
@LmpkioSERVUS
Even though he just met both the manakete and the thief, Servus couldn't help but to add them for the support of Grado's defenses. In such desperate times, he might as well pull them along for the ride. They seemed harmless enough. At least Kara seems to agree it will be faster, since she's so tired. As she began to hop onto Amboli, she stepped on her tail causing the wyvern to screech loudly, almost dismounting both riders. Servus continued to sooth the wyvern up to the point the manakete got comfortable. She asked simply what to hold on to in a rather nervous tone. Servus simply chuckled.
"Try tha' guy in front of ya." he said with a humorous undertone.
Once she took ahold of the bashful thief, they were ready to go, but not without Kara giving an ominous warning if she were to fall off. Servus chuckles again at the response, both jokingly with a healthy dose of nervousness.
"Than hang on tight!" the rider announced as he slaps the reins on Amboli, signaling her to become airborne with an abrupting jolt.
With that, the trio began to fly to their next destination. What awaits them has yet to be seen...
@Crimson RavenCuriously, all her trepidation vanished after the initial terror of take off. Kara clenched tight against Hevel as Amboli launched herself into the air, the motion disturbingly familiar yet different from when Kara herself took flight. But, all her nervousness faded when they were in the air, as if her body and mind recognized this as familiar.
This...isn't so bad. She thought.
However, in the absence of panic, crushing exaustion piled up on her. It has been quite the eventful day and she had spent most of her energy flying and then fighting those monsters. She was beat. To tired to think, her eyes began to droop as she leaned forward into Hevel. The sonorous beat of Amboli's wings worked like a lullaby to the dragoness. Her grip relaxed as she rested her head on Hevel's back. Within seconds, she was sound asleep, her warm breath ticking the back of Hevel's neck.
