[IC] [Dragon Tales Group] Newcomers' Journeys

[RainbowFactory]

After Rasputin finished eating, Dianna got up and waved her hand at the fire, making it die out. When he asked for the nearest town, she pointed to where they came from and said, "At the very edge of the forest." Immediately after she told him that, he asked for a place to sleep at. Dianna simply pointed upwards while looking up at the empty area above them, but if they focused their eyes enough, the outline of a large tree house could be seen. That was keeping the snow from falling onto the area they were on.
Dianna took a step or two back then cupped her hands around her mouth. She started to make loud screeching noises, then a blast of shadow-looking energy burst from her mouth, and onto the area above them. She stopped a minute later with the tree house now shimmering into view. Dianna looked at the old man, blinking a few times, then waved her hand to follow.
She walked over to the front of the tree house where there was a rope ladder hanging from a platform. Dianna jumped and grabbed the highest ring she possibly could, then pulled herself to the top using her upper body strength. Once she got up she looked over the side of platform at Rasputin, waiting for him to get up.

[Natsucooldude]

Rasputin simply nodded when the dragon revealed a treehouse. Sighing about the somewhat unclear she again provided. He wasn't in the mood for physical exertion, so he simply made the shadows below him congeal into a rising pillar. It pushed him up to the house's entrance and fell back into its natural state once rasputin stepped back onto solid ground.

"Quite a quant little house you have here. Mind showing me the guest rooms?"

[RainbowFactory]

Dianna covered her mouth, trying not to loudly laugh at Rasputin thinking there were guest rooms in a small tree house like this. She opened the door then stepped aside for Rasputin to look around, and it was one gigantic room. In the far right corner were two couches, both already occupied. On the one closest to the door was a passed out boy wearing a grey button up shirt, a red bow tie, black jeans, and black and white converse shoes. His hair was very messy, and was fire-colored like one of the dragon's scales, with dark grey horns popping out. The other couch had another boy, but was wearing a black hoodie with a lightning bolt on front, blue jeans, and black and yellow converse. His hood was pulled over his head, so it wasn't easy to see his face nor his hair.
In the far left corner were two queen sized beds next to each other, with one of them also occupied. There was a shorter female in a dark purple long sleeved shirt, blue shorts, and red boots. Her light purple hair went down to her shoulders and had sharp red, purple, blue, and white horns sticking out from her hair. She was looking back and forth between a closet that was next to the two beds, and a television that was on National Geographic.
Compared to her siblings, it would be easier for Dianna to fit in with humans...

[Natsucooldude]

To rasputin's dismay, it seemed his hosts did not have the architectural prowess to have a home with more than just a single living space in it. "Well... I'm sure I can find someplace to sleep" He said. "I see your family lives here too... I trust they won't bite?

He continued staring about the room, studying the dragons in it. "So why do you live this far away from civilization? I'd think exotic creatures such as you would could live the life of a superstar out in the city.

[RainbowFactory]

Dianna pointed to the other bed that wasn't occupied, which looked like it hasn't been touched for a while. She looked at Rasputin, basically telling him without any words that he can sleep there. When he asked about her family and biting, she chuckled and pointed to the cupcake looking hybrid on the other bed. "Annabeth might," Dianna said, getting an annoyed look from the girl.
Rasputin asked about why the siblings weren't near civilization, which resulted with all of the siblings looking at him with squinted eyes. In unison they all answered with one word: "Hunters."

[Natsucooldude]

Hunters they answered. "my, people killing you for glory or profit? I thought that was illegal nowadays"

He sighed, how much longer would it be until people learned that nonhuman creatures could also be intelligent enough to be considered on equal grounds. "I must say, this simply cannot do, for you all to be afraid of someone coming over and killing you all..." He shifted his posture to a more regal stance. "I myself am somewhat of a statesman. I can assure you that this issue will be adressed as soon as I get back to the embassy."

He briefly sighed "Now if only there was any chance I could get to my appointment in time... I don't think I can make it all the way there by tomorrow afternoon." He implicitly looked at Dianna's back, and the tears in her hoodie. "Mind giving me a lift?"

[RainbowFactory]

All of the siblings did the same thing Dianna did before, covering their mouths and trying not to laugh. Dianna was the first to stop and told Rasputin, "Rasp, we had an entire war with the hunters before. We're not 'afraid', just pissed off." Anna, who seemed like the only sibling that was paying attention to the conversation, nodded with agreement.
Annabeth finally talked, explaining in a low tone, "We managed to bring peace to most of the hunters, but new generations of hunters don't know about the war, and continue to hunt anyway. Even the ones that know about the battle try to get away with hunting the mythical creatures in the forest, mostly dragons, as if they're trying to get revenge. That's why we try to stay away or at least keep a low profile."
When Dianna was asked to give a lift for Rasputin, she paused for a few moments, looking at her siblings then back at him. "After you stay the night, correct?"

[Natsucooldude]

"Why yes of course, I wouldn't have you flying through the cold night sky if there was a perfectly good bed to sleep in here." He looked over the beds, they seemed decent enough. Perhaps a little affected by the constant breezes that probably ran through this place. "Speaking of which, I've had a tiring day, would you mind I retire for the night milady?"

[RainbowFactory]

Dianna chuckled, wanting to take that as a challenge, but might as well let Rasputin sleep. "Go ahead Rasp," she said, making a shooing motion towards the bed while walking over to the couch that had the black hooded boy on it. She plopped down next to his head, pulling her hoodie over her hair and saying, "Night," under her breath. In a matter of seconds, Dianna passed out. The two boys were already quietly snoring to themselves, but Annabeth was still up, sitting on the bed with her legs crossed and staring at Rasputin.

[Natsucooldude]

Dianna literaly dove into her bed, going to sleep almost immediately. That left only Rasputing and dianna's presumable sibling awake. He looked at her for a moment "I don't know about you, but I'm going to sleep too." He said as he made his way through the cabin, carefully, as to not disturb sleeping dragons. Neat as he was, he shut the TV off for the night. No use wasting power even if the source was rather unclear. He would have to ask dianna how they got both electricity and signal way out here. But for now, he retreated to bed. He was briefly conflicted on whether or not he would take some clothes of for more comfortable sleeping. Ultimately deciding that at least the socks needed to go. Sleeping with socks on might very well be a torment of demons after all.

And like that rasputin lay down in the free bed. He wondered if the dragons knew the social rules regarding personal space. It would be quite surprising to find ony lying next to him in the coming morning. As he laid in bet contemplating the events of the day, he produced a small crystal bottle from his pocket. There was still just the tiniest thing left to do before going to sleep

_____

Rasputin awoke to the sound of dawn in a winter forest. It was a comfortable way of waking up. The bed had been surprisingly comfy for him. He got up and looked about the treehouse to see what his hosts were doing. The dragon that had been staring at him appeared to be sleeping soundly now, this relieved him. It would have been quite awkward to see her still sitting there after an entire night.

[RainbowFactory]

Annabeth watched Rasputin go over to his bed, taking off his socks and going to sleep. She had this suspicious feeling inside of her, so she didn't relax until she thought the man was sleeping completely. After a while, Anna laid down onto her side, resting her head on top of her hands, and slowly fell asleep.
The next day after Rasputin woke up, three of the dragons were still sleeping in the same position they were in, but Dianna was missing from the tree house. She was outside of the tree house door, sitting on the edge of the platform with her legs hanging over the side.

[Natsucooldude]

Rasputin needed just a few moments to look through the treehouse. Dianna was not amongst them, so it stood to reason she would be outside. He got out of bed and put his socks and shoes back on. He then silently stalked out of the treehouse, as to not wake sleeping dragons. There, he saw his host sitting on the edge. "So... about that lift?"

[RainbowFactory]

Dianna turned her upper body and head enough that she could see Rasputin, then with a grunt she pushed herself down onto the ground. "Do you want it to be a hold-on type of lift, or dragon ride type of lift?" she asks with a yawn while quickly stretching her arms. After the stretching, Dianna bent over to put her hands on her knees, having two wings sprout from her back, one at a time. They were very large, looking big even when they were folded against her back. They were blood red with light grey wing webs, and at the tips of the wings were sharp yellow claws. Once she was finished with the stretching of both her body and her wings, she finally said, "Please be a hold-on type of lift because I don't want to waste any energy shifting to dragon form."

[Natsucooldude]

Rasputin simply looked at Dianna. "Whatever's the most comfortable for you I guess. Tis already quite helpful of you to do this for me at all. Now... I suspect from what I've seen earlier that you can be quite... rash. Do not worry, I am prepared for takeoff. let us fly to civilization."

He braced himself. He suspected his upper body clothing would probably suffer during this trip, but still, he could probably trust the dragon not to backstab him after all that.

[RainbowFactory]

Dianna nodded, spreading her wings to the side so Rasputin can climb onto the empty area between them. Once he grabbed on she bent her knees, and pushed her wings downwards with a large amount of force, having them take flight. "I might do a shorter flight time, so hold on!" she said, holding out her wings so they were carried higher into the calm but dark sky. Once they were halfway to the town she closed her wings partly, and they zoomed towards the edge of the forest at high speeds. When they were a few yards above the treetops Dianna reopened her wings, getting pushed upwards slightly and evening out. She circled a tree a few feet away from the edge of the forest then landed, letting Rasputin get off.

[Natsucooldude]

The fight was quite exhilerating, though also remarkaby short. By the end of it, Rasputin's hair was utterly frazzled by the wind. "right..." he breathed rather heavily. The speed ahd made it hard to breathe for him. "I... think I'll be getting off here then, thanks for your assistance. It's been a joy meeting you and your siblings... especially your sister. Insistent she might have been on staring me down."

He turned to the town in the distance. "but alas, we must part ways here... I suppose I might visit you again someday in the future." And with that said, he walked off into the distance.

____

It didn't take long for rasputin to walk back to the town. He walked into the first random bar he came across and requested to make a phone call. Time was short, he had to get back home. The telephone rang, one time, two times. Someone picked up the phone. "Hello? Mister Orelov? where have you been?!" The worried voice of Rasputin's beleaguered personal asisstant crackled through the phone.

Rasputin produced the same crystal bottle he had been staring at the evening before. "I've found something I was looking for Igorovitch. Now be a good boy and send a car over to get me posthaste. I suspect this place will heat up before long." He looked at the contents of the bottle. It contained a heavily shrunken down figure. Dianna's sibling, banging uselessly against the walls of the vail. "Rage all you want little lizard, once you're inside, you aren't getting out on your own."

At that moment, threads of shadow began to fray of the facsimile forged from shadow that Rasputin had replaced Annabeth with. It was no surpise this started happening, after all, Rasputin himself was way too far away to maintain the spell. It was only a matter of time before his trickery was uncovered.

Luckily for rasputin, Igorovitch was an efficient assistant if anything, or else Rasputin's other minions had been looking for him in the area already. An unassuming car pulled up near the pub Rasputin had made the phone call. The treacherous wizard took one last look at the forest, smirked smugly, and stepped inside.

[RainbowFactory]

Dianna waved goodbye to Rasputin with a faint smile on her face. "I hope I see you soon! You can simply send a shadow signal if you need me!" she said, taking flight towards her tree house. Dianna was then disturbed by something, nearly crashing into a tree. A throbbing pain was going at Dianna's head, a way to tell her about something happening that was related to fire or shadows. Something was trying to get her attention, or someone.
Inside the glass bottle Annabeth screamed angrily, pounding on the glass as hard as she possibly could in hybrid form. It took her a while to realize that wouldn't help her situation at all, so she started blasting the glass with fiery energy and even sending out flares. Her attacks only bounced around the walls, but she knew that at least one of her siblings could sense the disturbance, and with Dianna being the strongest, it was most likely going to be her. After a few attacks she was overcome by darkness, making her stop attacking.
Dianna continued to fly towards the tree house, trying her best to keep balance in midair. So help me if it's one of those humans messing around with some fire... she thought, slowly landing on the tree house platform. She realized that a human couldn't make a source of fire this strong unless there was a large amount of it, or it wasn't a human at all. Dianna looked inside the tree house, finding her two brothers fast asleep on the couches, but Annabeth gone. Dianna's pupils turned to slits, making her scream with anger. "RASPUTINNN!" she yelled, having her voice echo throughout the forest.

[Natsucooldude]

At that same moment, a sedan with dark-tinted windows drove out of the town. If rasputin had gauged Dianna correctly, she would first focus on the unassuming town. It had been a small task to set a false trail for his pursuer. Simply dress some hobo up like him, and the fracas that was likely tofollow would most likely either put the dragon on the public's hit list or else simply waste quite a lot of her time. It was no matter, by the time it was sorted out, he would already be flying back home, to Moscow.

He turned to his driver "Step on it man, you don't want to be here when my pursuer catches up. All hell is going to break loose." The driver nodded to indicate he understood what was desired and ran the next red light they encountered. Sure, it was breaking the law, but it was less risky than going against master rasputin. Rasputin himself now turned to his personal asisstant. "So, Igorovitch, is the plane flying back home ready for departure?"

Igorovitch turned to his boss rather fearfully. "Sir, I couldn't arrange for an exit so fast, we'll have to wait till the airport traffic control allows us on the runway... It oculd take an hour, possibly more and..." His words were cut off by Rasputin louldly shushing. "Igorovitch the fourth... need I remind you what happens when people fail me? perhaps I should tell you about Igorovitch the first through the third again to remind you."

Igorovitch flinched. "A bribe then sir?" He proposed. Rasputin nodded, he was feeling generous today. "Yes, grease some palms, I'll give you something to work with today." He said. He sighed, it was quite hard work leading his minions to do good work. But it was all worth it when he could relax with what he wanted in hand. That being a bottled dragon today. He looked at her again, it seemed the poor thing had worn herself out trying to break out. "Ah, you have no idea how precious you are to me." He continued looking at the bottle, :aking sure its contents remained firmly inside.

[RainbowFactory]

Dianna jumped and quickly flew back to the edge of the forest, doing the same technique as she did with Rasputin but a few minutes quicker, not wanting to waste any time. She landed, quickly pulling her wings back into her body; wrapping her tail inside her hoodie and around her body; and pulling her hood onto her head so her horns weren't visible. Dianna ran towards the town, looking in store windows she passed until she realized they must have left by now. She growled to herself, running back out of the town and reversing herself, taking flight again.
She could still sense a small trace of fire energy, and another type of energy only certain people and species could understand. Cosmic energy, also known as space magic. The strange colors Annabeth had was because of that elemental mix of fire and space, letting her get sensed even without having to use any powers. Dianna flew around, following the trail of energy she could sense until she slowed above a sedan, finding the strongest mix of fiery cosmo energy there. It took her a while, but she managed to find the source before Rasputin could get away!

[Natsucooldude]

"Sir, there's something chasing us" The driver said. Rasputin looked up from the cyrstal bottle. He looked out the back window, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Above us sir!" He leaned slightly to the side, and saw Dianna. She seemed to be rather angry about his taking her sister. "How did she...? bah! no matter, keep driving... And take a turn into that tunnel there!" He saw the oppurtunity just in time. Out here in the sunlight there was little he could do, but down there, things were a different story. Already, he began concentrating on the shadows ahead, tendrils of blackness started crawling in the nooks and crannies the lights in the tunnel couldn't reach. One by one, the writhing shadows disabled the lamps, so that by the time the car reached the tunnel, the only light inside were from car headlights. "Sir! I can't drive safely in there!" Rasputin didn't need to thinkn long about his answer to that. "Then drive unsafely. I thought you were a retired stunt driver."

With a defeated sigh, the driver followed rasputin's orders, only about half a minute had passed since Dianna had started flying above the car. And now, they approached the tunnel. The first thing the wizard did was comparatively simple. A web of shadowy threads sprang out and blocked the tunnel's entrance, each of them razor sharp and strong as steel. An unfortunate driver exiting the tunnel at just that moment drove into a single vertically-oriented wire, and it sliced the passenger side of his car clean off. Rasputin left but a small gap for his own car to drive through, setting that too to spring shut once his car had passed.